LAPORTE, MICHAEL LOUIS
Name: Michael Louis Laporte
Rank/Branch: E5/US Navy
Unit: 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Force Recon Battalion, 1st
Marine Division
Date of Birth: 21 August 1944 (Seattle WA)
Home City of Record: Los Angeles CA
Date of Loss: 05 September 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 155500N 1075800E (ZC184665)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: HCDROP
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 April 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 2020
REMARKS: LOST IN HELICOPTER DROP
SYNOPSIS: Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Petty Officer Michael L. Laporte was
assigned to 1st Force Recon Company, 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine
Division at Da Nang, South Vietnam. (NOTE: Some lists have Laporte
incorrectly listed as an E2.) On September 3, 1967, Laport was assigned as
the team corpsman of a nine-man reconnaissance patrol that was inserted by
parachute into Happy Valley, Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam.
Laporte was the number five man in the jump sequence. All nine parachutes
opened, but a westerly wind of about 30 knots caused the team to drift.
Laporte was seen by team members to be drifting out and beyond the others.
This was the last time he was seen. He did not join the patrol as planned.
The patrol conducted an immediate search with negative results. this was
Laporte's 13th jump and he was very experienced in such operations, having
been in-country for about 2 years, with a request for another extension. The
jump master believed that he was not injured in the jump and that he could
evade capture. (NOTE: Some sources say that Michael Laporte was a Navy SEAL,
although this information is not given in U.S. Navy accounts of his loss
incident.) Later in the day, the patrol was hit by an enemy force of 5-6
Viet Cong. All other patrol members were evacuated. (NOTE: Defense
Department lists indicate that Laporte was lost on September 5th. No reason
for the descrepancy can be determined, unless the team was inserted on the
3rd and extracted on the 5th at which time Laporte was declared missing.)
Laporte was listed Missing in Action.
Nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans still missing, prisoner, or
otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S.
Government since the war ended. Many officials, having reviewed this largely
classified information, believe that hundreds of Americans are still alive,
withing and hoping that their country will someday bring them home.
Through the years since Laports disappeared, reports have filtered in that
he was captured by the Viet Cong. In 1979, U.S. Marine PFC Robert Garwood
was released from Vietnam, and related that he had known of Laporte.
According to Garwood, the Viet Cong had brought Laporte to the camp in Happy
Valley where Garwood had been held for some time as prisoner. The camp
guards called Laporte "Bill." The last he heard, "Bill" was working as a
laborer on a communal farm in North Vietnam in the Quang Thien area -- in
1975 -- two years after the U.S. Government declared that there was no
reason to believe any POWs were still alive.
Garwood was not debriefed by the U.S. Government for some 8 years after he
was released, so his knowledge of "Bill" was quite dated by the time it was
reluctantly received. Perhaps Laporte is still alive, wondering if anyone
remembers him -- or cares.
Michael L. Laporte was promoted to the rank of Chief Petty Officer during
the period he was maintained missing.
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[r0830.97]
PROJECT X
SUMMARY SELECTION RATIONALE
NAME: LAPORTE, Michael L. HM2 USN
OFFICIAL STATUS: MISSING
CASE SUMMARY: SEE ATTACHED
RATIONALE FOR SELECTION: HM2 Laporte was last seen in a good parachute
drifting away from other members of his reconnaissance team during a
parachute drop. There is no evidence to indicate HM2 Laporte's death.
REFNO: 0830 20 Apr 76
(U) CASE SUMMARY
1. On 5 September 1967, Michael L. LaPorte was the medic assigned to a nine
man reconnaissance patrol that was to parachute into "Happy Valley,"
(vicinity of grid coordinates (GC) ZC 144 644), South Vietnam. At drop time
the forecast was negligible wind and favorable conditions. However, after
exiting the aircraft, the jumpers encountered a westerly wind of 30 knots,
causing the patrol to miss the drop zone by 3 1/2 kilometers and to land in
heavy jungle canopy and rough terrain, (in the vicinity of (GC) ZC 184
6'65). HM2 LaPorte was observed by other members of the team, while still
in the air to be drifting away from the others at much faster rate in a
northwesterly direction. This was the last time HM2 LaPorte was seen. (Ref
1 & 2)
2. The drop area was searched unsuccessfully by reconnaissance personnel,
and loudspeaker broadcasts were made by a U.S. Army Psyops Warfare
Aircraft. (Ref 1)
3. The search was ended at 1645 hours on 6 September 1967, and the
remaining members of the patrol were extracted. No trace of LaPorte was
found. Two members of HM2 LaPorte's unit, HM2 [blank] and SSG [blank]
former members of LaPorte's patrol, raised the possibility that LaPorte
went AWOL from the patrol for the purpose of going to Saigon to be with an
"alleged" Vietnamese wife. [Blank] further alleged that LaPorte had packed
extra food and medical supplies prior to the patrol, and had withdrawn all
monies due him from finance, and had updated his personnel record. Other
members of LaPorte's Patrol had no knowledge of these allegations, and a
former commanding officer of LaPorte doubted the accuracy of [blank]
statements. The patrol members believe that LaPorte was probably killed or
critically injured after the jump and was unable to link-up with his
comrades. (Three members of the patrol had to be medevaced after landing
with the high winds and extremely rough terrain). (Ref 1 & 2)
4. During the existence o' JCRC, the hostile threat in the area precluded
any visits to or ground inspectors of the sites involved in this case. This
individual's name and identifying data were turned over to Four-Party Joint
Military Team with a request for any information available. No response was
forthcoming. LaPorte is currently carried in the status of Missing.
REFERENCES USED
1. RPT (U), HQ lst RECON Bn lst Marine Div, FMF, w/statements, 19 Sep 67.
2. RPT (U), HQ 2nd CI Team, File #12-68-5X, w/statements, 1 Aug 68.
* National Alliance of Families Home Page
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Los Angeles Times
April 14, 1991
The Legend of Doc Laporte
One Night, He Parachuted Behind North Vietnamese Lines. The Navy Declared
Him Dead, a Hero. The Men Who Served With Him Say He Went Over to the Other
Side - and May Still Be Alive.
By Karen Tumutry
The last thing that anyone knows for sure about Doc Laporte is this: Several
hours before dawn on Sept. 5. 1967, he was the fifth of nine men who
parachuted from a transport plane into a hellish place named Happy Valley.....
Karen Tumulty is a reporter in The Times' Washington bureau. Times
researchers Jill Gottesman in Los Angeles and Doug Conner in Seattle
contributed to this story.
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KZ3nEAG
Hospital Corpsman Second Class (HM2) Michael Louis LaPorte entered the U.S. Navy from California and was assigned to the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division. On September 5, 1967, he was a medic assigned to a nine-man reconnaissance patrol parachuting out of an aircraft into Happy Valley in the vicinity of grid coordinates ZC 144 664, Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. After exiting the aircraft, the team encountered heavy wind and HM2 LaPorte was last observed by the other team members to be drifting away from them at a much faster rate. HM2 LaPorte did not join his patrol at the landing site, and search and rescue efforts were initiated but were unsuccessful. He remains unaccounted for. After the incident, the Navy promoted HM2 LaPorte to the rank of senior chief hospital corpsman. Today, Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman LaPorte is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Active Pursuit.
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