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John Daniel Shewmake Sr.'s
Dedication Page
Name: John Daniel
Shewmake, Sr.Rank/Branch: E6/US ArmyUnit: 329th Transportation
Company, 5th Transportation Command (Terminal)Date of Birth: 15
May 1933Home City of Record: Adona ARDate of Loss: 03 November
1970Country of Loss: South VietnamLoss Coordinates: 163226N
1074138E (YD925275)Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not
RecoveredCategory: 5Acft/Vehicle/Ground: LCU-63Refno: 1672
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: Richard C. Dority;
David L. Ginn; Arlie R.Mangus; Jerry D. Martin; Calvin A. Norris;
James R. Pantall; Dennis I. Day;David W. Woods (all classified
Killed/Body Not Recovered); Perry C.Kitchens; Billy H. Peeples
(remains recovered)REMARKS: LCU SANK-NO PARABEEP-NO PERS-NO SURV
OBS AIR-JSYNOPSIS: The 5th Transportation Command (Terminal) had
the duty of runningthe extensive Qui Nhon port and served under
the U.S. Army Support Command,Qui Nhon. The 5th Transportation
Command was later deployed to Da Nang, andhad Battalions serving
Vung Tau and Cat Lai. Among its duties were supportof amphibious
operation and supplying ammunition and ordnance to
operationalunits, primarily by heavy boat. On the afternoon of
November 2, 1970, Sgt. Dennis I. Day, Sgt. Richard C.Dority, Sgt.
David L. Ginn, Sgt. Perry C. Kitchens, Sgt. Arlie R. Mangus,Sgt.
Jerry D. Martin, SSgt. Calvin A. Norris, Sgt. James R. Pantall,
SFCJohn D. Shewmake, Sgt. David W. Woods, and PFC Billie Hammond
Peeples werethe crew of a landing craft, LCU #63, which departed
Da Nang en route to TanMy, South Vietnam on a resupply mission.
The LCU was a heavy craft able tocarry large loads of
ammunition.At 1010 hours on November 3, 1970, helicopter pilots
sighted the craftcapsized about 5 nautical miles south of Tan My
port. In an initial searchby air/sea rescue, however, no sign of
the crew of the LCU were observed.There was no apparent hostile
action, and the reason for the incident isunknown.On November 6,
the remains of Billy H. Peoples were recovered near Cu LoiIsland,
fully rigged in a life jacket. During the period of December
4-20,attempts were made to salvage the craft and locate the crew.
Divers gainedaccess to all compartments and voids of the craft,
but no survivors orevidence of remains were found. Pieces of
clothing, small arms ammo, cansand a radio were recovered.On
March 16, 1977, the body of Perry Kitchens was returned to U.S.
controland subsequently positively identified. There has been no
word of the restof the crew. The missing eight men were all
presumed to have drowned, andthe U.S. Army believes there is no
chance to ever recover the eight menmissing from LCU-63. There
are several descrepancies in the case of LCU-63 which should be
noted. First of all, the U.S. Army, the State Department and the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Directory lists all the crew except
Peeples as Sergeant, StaffSergeant, or Sergeant First Class,
which are ranks one grade above thoselisted by Defense Department
and Joint Casualty Resolution Center records.The lower grades are
listed as follows: Ginn, Martin, Pantall, Peeples - E3or PFC;
Day, Dority, Kitchens, Mangus and Woods - E4 - which can be
eitherCorporal or SP4; Norris - E5 or Sergeant; Shewmake - E6 or
Staff Sergeant.Secondly, the Memorial Directory lists the entire
crew with the exceptionsof Peeples and Kitchens as missing on 4
November 1971 (a year and a daylater than all other
records).Third, the military occupational specialties of all 10
men on whominformation can be gathered are classified.It was not
uncommon for promotions to be given during the period between
thetime personnel went missing and the time they were declared
dead. This groupis classified as having had "non-hostile,
died while missing" deaths,leading one to assume that for a
brief time, at least, they were declaredmissing, so that it might
be possible to have attained a grade increaseduring that period.
It is uncommon, however for grade increases to be givento those
whom are considered dead and non-recoverable. It was also
uncommon for a group of 18 and 19 year-olds, as was most of this
crew, to attain therank of sergeant.Strange things have been
known to happen regarding missing men. One pilotwas declared dead
because his aircraft exploded close to the ground. Later, the
pilot, who had ejected in a cloud of smoke, and landed on the
groundeven before his parachute was fully deployed, was released
from POW camp.One Marine, Ronald Ridgeway, was declared dead and
actually "buried" in amass grave in the United States
with other men from the same action, only tocome home from POW
camp in 1973. Mistakes were made, and errors in
judgementoccurred.Given that the LCU sank with no witnesses, and
sank in the proximity of anisland, it is imaginable that the crew
could have survived to be captured.This could be said to be
supported by the fact that Peeples was found fullyoutfitted in
his life jacket. It is, of course, only conjecture.Tragically,
thousands of reports have been received that indicate
Americansare still being held captive in Southeast Asia. Whether
the LCU crew isamong them is certainly not known, but they could
be. The evidence suggeststhat hundreds are alive, waiting for
their country
to free them. It's time we got answers.
"All
Biographical and loss information on
Vietnam Era POW/MIA's provided by Operation Just Cause
have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of
POW/NET http://www.asde.com/~pownet/ .
Please check
with POW/NET regularly for
updates."
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