SCHULTZ, SHELDON DUANE

Name: Sheldon Duane Schultz
Rank/Branch: WO/US Army
Unit: 176th Aviation Company, 14th Aviation Battalion, 23rd Infantry
Division (Americal)
Date of Birth: 19 April 1948
Home City of Record: Altoona PA
Date of Loss: 05 January 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 161907N 1063445E (XD701021)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1D
Refno:

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.

Other Personnel In Incident: James Williamson; John T. Gallagher; Ernest F.
Briggs; Dennis C. Hamilton (all missing); (indigenous team members, names,
numbers, fates unknown)

REMARKS: NO SIGN OF CREW

SYNOPSIS: On January 5, 1968, WO Dennis C. Hamilton, aircraft commander; WO
Sheldon D. Schultz, pilot; SP5 Ernest F. Briggs, Jr., crew chief; SP4 James
P. Williamson, crewman, and SSgt. John T. Gallagher, passenger; were aboard
a UH1D helicopter (tail # 66-1172) on a mission to infiltrate an indigenous
reconnaissance patrol into Laos.

The reconnaissance patrol and SSgt. Gallagher were operating under orders to
Command & Control North, MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command
unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations
throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into
MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special
Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under
secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of
strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on
the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.

As the aircraft approached the landing zone about 20 miles inside Laos south
of Lao Bao, it came under heavy 37mm anti-aircraft fire while at an altitude
of about 300 feet above ground level. The aircraft immediately entered a
nose-low vertical dive and crashed.

Upon impact with the ground, the aircraft burst into flames which were 10 to
20 feet high. No radio transmissions were heard during the helicopter's
descent, nor were radio or beeper signals heard after impact. Four attempts
to get into the area of the downed helicopter failed due to intense ground
fire.

During the next two days more attempts to get to the wreckage failed. The
pilot of one search helicopter maneuvered to within 75 feet of the crash
site before being forced out by enemy fire. The pilot who saw the wreckage
stated that the crashed helicopter was a mass of burned metal and that there
was no part of the aircraft that could be recognized. No signs of life were
seen in the crash area.

Weather delayed further search attempts for a couple of days. After the
weather improved, the successful insertion of a ground team was made east of
the crash site to avoid enemy fire. The team was extracted after the second
day, finding nothing. The crash site was located near the city of Muong Nong
in Savannakhet Province, Laos.

Nearly 600 Americans were lost in Laos. The Pathet Lao insisted that the
"tens of tens" of Americans they held would only be released from Laos, but
the U.S. did not officially recognize the communist faction in Laos and did
not negotiate for American prisoners being held by them. Not one American
held by the Lao was ever released.

Alarmingly, evidence continues to mount that Americans were left as
prisoners in Southeast Asia and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIAs"
from other wars, most of the nearly 2500 men and women who remain missing in
Southeast Asia can be accounted for. Perhaps the crew of the helicopter did
not survive the crash, but until there is positive proof of their deaths, we
cannot forget them. If even one was left behind at the end of the war,
alive, (and many authorities estimate the numbers to be in the hundreds), we
have failed as a nation until and unless we do everything possible to secure
his freedom and bring him home.

-----------------------------------
[ssrep7.txt 02/09/93]

SMITH 324 COMPELLING CASES


Laos Dennis C. Hamilton
Sheldon D. Schultz
Ernest F. Briggs, Jr.
John T. Gallagher
James D. Williamson
(0967)

On January 5, 1968, a UH-1D with a four man crew from the 176th
Aviation Co., 14th Aviation Bn., Americal Division, and one member
of the 5th Special Forces Command and Control Detachment was west
of Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, providing support to the insertion of
U.S. led cross-border forces into the Prairie Fire operational area
of Laos. While approaching a landing zone in Savannakhet Province,
the helicopter was hit by 37mm anti-aircraft fire. It began a nose
low vertical dive from an altitude of 4000 feet and no one was seen
to eject before it impacted on the ground and burst into fire with
flames reaching a height of 20 feet. There were no radio
transmissions or beepers from the crew or passenger after impact
and the five men on board the helicopter were declared missing in
action. Intense groundfire precluded any entry into the crash site
until four days when a ground team was successfully inserted. The
team was unable to locate any evidence of the crew and no evidence
anyone had survived.

In December 1971 the CIA forwarded a report to DIA about the
sighting of American POWs in Laos. One report described four
Americans said to have been captured in South Vietnam as passing
through a way-station on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in mid-1970, Commo-
Liaison Station 12, approximately 25 kilometers southwest of
Tchepone, Savannakhet Province. The source pointed out a
photograph of Williamson as resembling one of the four Americans.
Another report described two captured pilots at Commo-Liaison
Station 12 early in 1969 approximately 15 kilometers northwest of
Muong Phine. These reports were placed in the file of those
associated with this loss incident.

Williamson was considered by other returnees as a "no show" in the
northern Vietnamese prison system and U.S. POWs returned during
Operation Homecoming had no information that anyone had survived
into captivity. However, one returnee reported having seen a
statement with the name Williamson on it. After Operation
Homecoming the five men in this incident were declared dead/body
not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of death.

In 1974, a report was received about the sighting of aircraft
wreckage in Laos. The report was placed in the files of this and
one other incident in the same general area. In another report, a
Vietnamese refugee stated that two bodies were burned up in the
crash of a Cobra helicopter and that report was also placed in the
files of those associated with the two loss incidents in this
general area.

----------------------------------------------------
[324.txt 12/29/92]

Bob Smith
New Hampshire
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

U.S. POW/MIAs WHO MAY HAVE SURVIVED IN CAPTIVITY

Prepared by the Office of Senator Bob Smith
Vice-Chairman, Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs

December 1, 1992


Schultz, Sheldon D. USA Laos, no sign of crew.

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