BENNETT, HAROLD GEORGE
Name: Harold George Bennett Rank/Branch: E4/US Army Unit: Date of Birth: 16 October 1940 (Thornburg AR) Home City of Record: Perryville AR Date of Loss: 29 December 1964 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 103740N 1071950E (YS549755) Status (in 1973): Killed In Captivity Category: 1 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground Other Personnel In Incident: Charles Crafts (released 1967)
REMARKS: 6506 ON PRG DIC LIST
Source: Compiled by HOMECOMING II 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 April 2006
SYNOPSIS: Harold Bennett and Charles Crafts were MACV advisors to an ARVN unit operating in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. A native of Maine, Crafts had been in country about 1 month.
On the afternoon of December 29, 1964, Bennett, Crafts and their ARVN unit made contact with Viet Cong guerrillas and the unit engaged in a firefight. During the firefight, both were taken prisoner.
By early 1965, Crafts and Bennett joined other prisoners held by the Viet Cong. Those who returned supplied information on the fates of those who did not. In late spring, 1965, Bennett began to refuse food. This was not an uncommon occurrence among prisoners suffering dysentery, malnutrition, malaise, injury and other ills that were common among prisoners of war in the South. Normally, the other prisoners worked hard to prevent further illness by forcing food on the POW who refused food, provided the sick man was not isolated. Returned POWs report the death of several men from the cycle of illness-refusal to eat- depression-starvation.
Bennett apparently did not die of starvaton, however. The Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF) announced on Radio Hanoi on June 24, 1965 that Bennett had been shot in retaliation for Viet Cong terrorist Tran Van Dong's execution by South Vietnam. He was the first POW to be executed in retaliation.
When the war ended in 1973, the Vietnamese listed Bennett as having died in captivity. They did not return his remains. He is one of nearly 2400 Americans still missing in Southeast Asia. Many, like Bennett did not survive. But experts now say, based on thousands of reports received, that hundreds are still alive.
We, as Americans had no say in the death of Harold Bennett. We do, however, have the power to prevent the deaths of the hundreds still alive. If we do nothing, we will be guilty of their deaths. We must bring them home, while there is still time.
The book "Pacific Stars and Stripes, VIETNAM Front Pages" published in 1986 states:
Five Star Edition Vol. 19, No. 304 Friday, Nov. 1, 1963
3 Aides Seized in Vietnam Battle
Saigon (AP) Communist guerrilas smashed a Republic of Vietnam task force after disrupting its radio communication Tuesday, and probably captured all three U.S. Army advisers with the 120-man Saigon outfit.
The three Americans listed as missing and believed captured were two officers and an enlisted medic. Stragglers returning from the rout said both officers had been wounded early in the fight -- one in the head and one the other in the leg.
The Army identified the three as Capt. Hubert R. Versace, Baltimore; 1st Lt. James M. Rowe, McAllen Tx; and Sgt. Daniel L. Pitzer, Spring Lake, N.C.
A second government force of about 200 men operating only a few thousand yards from the main fight, learned of the disaster too late to help. U.S. authorities said the communist radio jammers had knowcked out both the main channel and the alternate channel on all local military radios.
Five Star Edition Vol 21, 177 Sunday, June 27, 1965
Viet Cong Execute U.S. Army Sergeant Saigon (UPI) -- The U.S. Embassy here said Friday that the Viet Cong had announce the execution of U.S. Army Sgt. Harold George Bennett in retaliation for the firing squad execution of condemned communist terrorist Tran Van Dang last Tuesday.
The execution of Bennett, 25, of Perryville, Ark., was reported by both Radio Hanoi and the official communist Vietnam news agncy (VNAY). Radio Hanoi identified the soldier only as "Bennett", but NVA gave his full name and serial number.
Bennett was listed as missing and presumed captured Dec. 29, 1964 in the bloody battle for Binh Gia, a Catholic refugee center 25 miles south of Saigon in Phuoc Tuy province.
A U.S. Embassy spokeman said if the reported communist execution of the American is confirmed then "it is obviously a wanton act of murder."
(In Washington, the State Deptartment also condemned as "a wanton act of murder" the reported Viet Cong reprisal killing of an American serviceman, AP said.)
(Press officer Robert J. McCloskey said that "this matter is one of very serious concern for us, quite obviously, because it concerns the lives of American citizens.")
Radio Hanoi announced the execution took place Thursday somewhere in the Republic of Vietnam.
It was the first time the communists have announced such an execution, through they have threatened to kill American captives in the past.
Bennett was one of two U.S. Army sergeants reported captured when the 176 man Vietnamese Ranger force they were accompanying was overrun by communist guerrillas. Both men were advisers to the unit, which was attempting to relieve the village during a week long battle.
The Rangers were airlifted into the battle but were caught in a
[the article ends there]
Five Star Edition Vol 21, No. 270 Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1965
Report 2 Advisers Executed Saigon (UPI) -- The viet Cong executed two captive servicemen Sunday morning, the clandestine Liberation Radio said late Sunday night.
The communist radio identified the two Americans as Capt. Albert Rusk Joseph and Sgt. Kenneth Morabeth (as received phonetically).
American authorities in Saigon were comparing the names with a list of missing American servicemen to determine if any such individuals were, indeed, communist captives. The reported executions came less than three days after the Vietnamese government's execution of three convicted Viet Cong terrorists in Da Nang.
In revenge for the last previous execution of a Viet Cong by the governemnt. the communists announced that they had executed Sgt. Harold Bennett, of Arkansas, on June 24.
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AP Alert - Arkansas April 21, 2006
41 years later, first POW killed by Viet Cong is honored in Ark. By ANNIE BERGMAN
PERRYVILLE, Ark._In an act described by the State Department as a "wanton act of murder," the Viet Cong executed Harold George Bennett 41 years ago after Bennett injured a North Vietnamese soldier while trying to escape for a third time from a prison camp.
Bennett, the first American prisoner of war put to death during the Vietnam War, was to be remembered Friday for his long-forgotten "courage and honor." While a fellow soldier soon began documenting Bennett's heroism, steps to recognize Bennett fell through the cracks.
His grieving mother, who called Bennett's death "the most horrible thing in the world," died in 1978. "It means a great deal. I don't know just how to express it," said Eloise Wallace, 85, the oldest of Bennett's eight brothers and sisters, and one of four surviving siblings scheduled to accept the medals. "I just wish my mother could've lived to have heard it."
Radio Hanoi broadcast a report in June 1965 saying Bennett was executed in reprisal for the execution of captured Viet Cong guerrillas and that others "must pay for their blood debts." Those who researched Bennett's case said Bennett died after trying to escape captors who had imprisoned him at Binh Ghia six months earlier.
"Bennett could not accept being held as a POW," said Charles Crafts, a radio operator held captive with Bennett until his release in 1967, in testimony given to support the medals. "I believe he would have preferred being killed while attempting another escape."
The effort to award Bennett began again more than two years ago by a group called The Friends of the late U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Harold George Bennett, led in part by Col. Doug Moore.
Moore and the group gathered paperwork and witness testimony to build their case, and with U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., as congressional sponsor, were able to receive approval from Congress for the medals.
"Harold Bennett was just such a man," Lincoln said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday. "In the jungles of Vietnam, he displayed courage and honor before and after he was captured by the Viet Cong after a furious fire fight. Before being captured, Sgt. Bennett twice called off American helicopter pilots who were attempting to rescue him and his radioman because he wanted to save them from being shot down."
And though he didn't know it until he began researching Bennett's servie, Moore, originally from Marked Tree, Ark., was one of two helicopter pilots who had attempted to save Bennett.
As infantry advisor to the Vietnamese 33rd Ranger Battalion, Bennett volunteered to lead his company in an air assault at Binh Ghia. Moore had flown Vietnamese casualties to Saigon on the day of the battle, and refueled the helicopter and flew back to see if anyone else needed help.
By then, Bennett's company had walked into an ambush, and Bennett, along with Crafts and the few surving rangers, were about to be captured.
"I was probably two or three miles out and I heard on the radio, the guy on the ground, say 'They're here now. My people have laid their weapons down,'" Moore said in a telephone interview from his home in Virginia. "I started to slip in to treetop level, but I could hear over the radio, whoever this voice on the ground, saying "Negative. Don't even try it, you'll get shot down. Thanks a lot for your help and God bless you.'"
Moore said members of the group were happy they were able to give Bennett the recognition, and that no one could explain why the process took so long. Many said it appears the case was simply overlooked.
While Bennett's family say the awards are long overdue, they agree that the recognition is an affirmation for their brother.
Dick Bennett, the youngest of the nine siblings, remembered his older brother as a tough soldier. All four Bennett boys served in the military, Dick Bennett said, but Harold was the toughest of the bunch.
"He's one of the kind of people that the only thing he gave them was name, rank, serial number and a hard time," Dick Bennett said.
Dick Bennett and another brother, Dock Bennett, were serving in the Domincan Republic when they received word that their brother had been executed. He said no one in the family had heard from George, as they referred to him, since his capture.
Both Dick Bennett and Wallace said they vividly remember the day they were told their brother was dead, though the news came a bit later for Wallace.
"We were in a rural area where we didn't have electricity or telephone so they came and got me," Wallace said. "At least one of my brothers was there with my mother at the time so she wasn't by herself."
And while the family is happy with the medals their brother was awarded, Moore said the group is launching a second effort in hopes of Bennett receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor.
"From what I heard that day, he deserves some higher level award for heroism," Moore said.