STUBBS, WILLIAM WENTWORTH

Name: William Wentworth Stubbs
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army Special Forces
Unit: CCN, MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 06 August 1949 (Oak Harbor WA)
Home City of Record: Newport WA
Date of Loss: 20 October 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 180524N 1050000E (YB705987)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1503

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: (none missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: SSgt. William W. Stubbs was a rifleman and a team member of a Long
Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) assigned to 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.

On October 20, 1969, Stubbs' team was inserted into Laos just east of the
Thai city of Nakhon Phanom. During the patrol, Stubbs' team stopped for a
break, and as they were starting up again, with Stubbs in the point element,
they were attacked by an enemy force. In the initial sustained fire, Stubbs
was seen to be hit several times in the head from close range by enemy
automatic weapons fire. Three hand grenades were then thrown into his
position. Because of enemy fire, other team members were unable to move up
the steep slope to reach him and were forced to withdraw 5 minutes later,
leaving Stubbs behind.

The following day, a recovery team was inserted at the point of contact and
searched thoroughly, but no trace of Stubbs or any grave site could be
found. Stubbs was listed Missing In Action.

For every insertion like Stubbs' that was detected and stopped, dozens of
other commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of
targets and collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions
conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and Cambodia
was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American campaign of raiding,
sabotage and intelligence- gathering waged on foreign soil in U.S. military
history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a global reputation as one of the most
combat effective deep-penetration forces ever raised.

The missions Stubbs and others were assigned were exceedingly dangerous and
of strategic importance. The men who were put into such situations knew the
chances of their recovery if captured was slim to none. They quite naturally
assumed that their freedom would come by the end of the war. For 591
Americans, freedom did come at the end of the war. For nearly 2500, however,
freedom has never come.

Stubbs is one of nearly 600 Americans missing in Laos. Although the Pathet
Lao stated publicly that they held "tens of tens" of Americans, the U.S.
refused to negotiate for them with a "government" which they did not
recognize. Consequently, no American held in Laos was ever released.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to missing Americans in
Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., convincing many authorities
that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Stubbs, if he survived, could be
one of them.

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