SHAW, GARY FRANCIS
Name: Gary Francis Shaw
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: A Battery, 3rd Battalion, 19th Artillery, 173rd Airborn Brigade
Date of Birth: 13 March 1948 (Windsor, Novia Scotia)
Home City of Record: Toledo OH
Date of Loss: 11 November 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 143548N 1073634E (YB825184)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno:0905
Other Personnel In Incident: Edwin Martinez-Mercado; John Stuckey; Robert
Staton; (all missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990 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 2001.
REMARKS: BTL - LFT FR DED - LATR BOD GONE - J
SYNOPSIS: On November 11, 1967, PFC Edwin Martinez-Mercado, PFC Gary Shaw,
PVT John Stuckey and SP4 Robert Staton were all members of the 173rd
Airborne Brigade on a search and destroy mission in Kontum Province, South
Vietnam, when the unit engaged an enemy force.
Following the battle, the three were judged to have been killed in action,
and were left on the battlefield for later recovery. A few days later, the
area was searched for casualties, but their bodies could not be found.
The three members of the 173rd killed on November 11, 1967 are listed with
honor among the missing because no remains were found. Their cases seem
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.
When the war ended, and 591 Americans were released in Operation Homecoming
in 1973, military experts expressed their dismay that "some hundreds" of
POWs did not come home with them. Since that time, thousands of reports have
been received, indicating that many Americans are still being held against
their will in Southeast Asia. Whether the men from the 173rd are among them
is not at all likely. What is certain, however, is that if only one American
remains alive in enemy hands, we owe him our best effort to bring him home.
----------------------------
Ruling that son died in Vietnam ends vigil
Published 1996
By Michael D. Sallah
Blade Staff Writer
For 29 years, Don Shaw waited for his son, Gary, to walk through the
doorway.
So many times, the father would stare at pictures of son, and break down in
tears.
But after three decades, the vigil is over.
This week, the Toledo man received a letter saying his son - a 19-year-old
serviceman who had been missing in action in Vietnam - finally was declared
dead.
Officials were able to find two medics who were in a battle with Pfc. Gary
Shaw near Dak To on Nov. 11, 1967.
There, while trying to help fellow soldiers who were shot, the young soldier
was hit by a hail of enemy gunfire, according to the letter from the U.S.
Department of Defense.
"Your son was killed," said the letter from James W. Wold, deputy assistant
defense secretary.
For Mr. Shaw, the words sunk deep.
For years, he had refused to believe his son - a 1966 Start High School
graduate - was dead.
He would wake up at night, creep into the den, and stare at the pictures of
his only son on the wall.
Then he got the letter two days ago.
"Now there is some relief," the 79-year-old man said yesterday. "I've
carried him so long."
The last chapter of the search for his son began a year ago, when the
defense department stepped up investigations of some 2,200 MIAs.
They began to look into the case of Gary Shaw.
Investigators were able to find records showing Private Shaw took part in
the Battle of Dak To.
In fact, the Shaw family was aware in the battle. But no one - not even the
army - knew what happened to him. He was considered to be missing in action.
His body never was recovered.
During the battle, several soldiers who were hit by enemy gunfire say the
young private was a hero, carrying them safely from enemy fire.
For those deeds, Gary Shaw was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for
gallantry, with his family members accepting the award for him in 1968 at
the University of Toledo.
But Private Shaw was still classified as missing in action.
"I got a lot of government talk, but no one had any answers." Said Mr. Shaw,
a former printer at the Blade who retired in 1975.
The father began writing letters to congressmen, veterans' groups, "anyone
who would listen to me," said Mr. Shaw, who also has three daughters.
His hopes soared a few years later when officials showed him pictures of
POW's in the war.
They thought one of the prisoners was Gary Shaw.
"We didn't know what to thing," said Gary Shaw's sister, Kaythleen Priscilla
of Toledo. The family wasn't sure if one of the prisoners was Gary, but it
kindled their hopes.
Mr. Shaw built a special room in his home in his son's memory. He placed the
service medals on the wall, along with pictures and other mementos.
"So many times, I would just go in there, and have a good cry," he said.
"Never - and I mean this - did I ever give up on him not being alive. I felt
that someday he would come home."
A year ago, the defense department went to work on the case. They talked to
some of the servicemen who said they were rescued by Private Shaw. But then
they got a break: A medic, who apparently was not interviewed before, said
he remembered Private Shaw.
The medic also recalled the young private was hit numerous times. A former
sergeant remembered Private Shaw being hit by enemy AK-47 assault rifles in
the chest and back.
A senior aide then checked Private Shaw for any signs of life, said the
letter. The aide said that "Private Shaw was unmistakably dead," said the
letter.
No one can say why the new information never came to light before. "What we
can say is that he was killed," said a spokesman for the MIA affairs office
yesterday.
But for Mr. Shaw, the waiting is over.
"There's a sense of closure," he said. "I feel like I can move on."
A military service will be held May 4 at the United Auto Workers Local 14
hall, 5411 Jackman Rd.
Until he received Defense Department notice this week, Don Shaw never
abandoned the hope his son was alive.