KING, PAUL CHESTER JR.

Name: Paul Chester King, Jr.
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army Special Forces
Unit: C & C Detachment, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 17 March 1949
Home City of Record: Waltham MA
Date of Loss: 04 May 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 160218N 1072345E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
Refno: 1159

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.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS:  PFC Paul King was a rifleman and a member of a Special Forces
recon- naissance team composed of 2 Americans and 4 indigenous personnel on
a combat mission in Laos.  During the mission, the team made contact with an
enemy force of unknown size, and maneuvered to an area for possible
extraction.

All attempts to rescue the team failed because of intense enemy fire.  The
team remained in that pickup point overnight, and received sporadic fire
from all sides.  The next morning, the enemy intensified their efforts to
dislodge the team from the site.  During the ensuing action, King exposed
himself while throwing a hand grenade and was hit in the head by large
calibre weapons fire and was killed instantly.

Staff Sgt. Allen, the only survivor of the team stated that he saw King's
body lying very close to that of one of the indigenous personnel.  King and
the 4 indigenous were killed in the action.  Allen evaded capture and was
later ex- tracted.  Because of the intense fire in the area, the bodies of
the King and the rest of the team could not be recovered.  The area in
Saravane Province remained consistently hostile throughout the war, and it
was never possibile to reenter the area.

Paul King was listed as killed, body not recovered.  He is listed with honor
among the missing because no remains were found.  His case seems quite
clear. For others who are listed missing, resolution is not as simple.  Many
were known to have survived their loss incident.  Quite a few were in radio
contact with search teams and describing an advancing enemy.  Some were
photographed or recorded in captivity.  Others simply vanished without a
trace.

Nearly 600 Americans were lost in Laos during the war with Vietnam.  The Lao
communist faction, the Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions that they
held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, but the Pathet Lao were not
included in the Paris Peace agreements ending the war.  As a consequence, no
American POWs held in Laos were negotiated for.  Not one American held in
Laos has ever been released.  They were abandoned to the enemy.
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