THE WALL OF FACES

14 February 2006

A MAN IS NOT DEAD UNTIL HE IS FORGOTTEN

THE STORY OF FRANK NEIL BADOLATI

After a trip to the Vietnam Wall the daughter of Goffstown, New Hampshire native, Staff Sergeant FRANK BADOLATI wrote, "It was terribly sad and lonely, but there I found a place to cry and many people to share my tears. I don't believe I will ever see my father in this lifetime. I was only three the last time I saw him."

Daisy Badolati of the small Azalea, Oregon community goes on to say. " It has been a very difficult issue for me to deal with over the years, so much so that I made the greatest effort to accept my loss and [ when the pain was just too great I would try to ] forget ever having had
a father."

SSGT Badolati was a member of Detachment B-52, Project Delta, 5th Special Forces Group.

Project Delta was formed in October 1964.

Their missions included some of the most hazardous and critical actions in South Vietnam.

Augmenting the 5th Special Forces (Green Berets) was a Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) Security Company, a group of South Vietnamese Special Forces, a South Vietnamese Ranger Battalion and a CIDG "Roadrunner" Company (Roadrunners were equipped with enemy uniforms, equipment and weapons).

"Stay Out of the An Lao Valley"

Operation Masher (24 January - 6 March 1966) was the largest search and destroy mission up to that point in the war.

Project Delta was selected to reconnoiter the Northern end of the An Lao valley.

This area of the An Lao Valley is covered with thick vegetation with a great deal of elephant grass, three to four feet tall, and interspersed with cultivated fields.

Steep slopes bound the valley on both sides with anti-aircraft emplacements.

Intelligence indicated that there were two Regiments of North Vietnamese in the valley supported by Viet Cong insurgents.

With such a heavy concentration of enemy forces, the former commander of Project Delta, Major ART STRANGE, warned incoming commander, Major CHARLES " Charging Charlie" BECKWITH, in July of 1965 to, "Stay out of the An Lao Valley. They have sophisticated warning systems and tracking dogs."

Operation Masher and "Charging Charlie" ignored good advice.

The operation required insertion of recon teams into the valley but problems plagued the mission.

Beckwith decided to not augment the Recon teams with South Vietnamese counterparts ( as was standard procedure ), ground intelligence was unconfirmed, the weather was bad, helicopter and air ship support would be limited due to the anti-aircraft guns, and, as stated before, the enemy
controlled the valley.

The last time friendly forces were in the valley was 1958.

Beckwith chose to insert three teams comprised of American Special Forces troopers.

Badolati was assigned to Team Three, Roadrunner, along with SFC MARCUS HUSTON (Team Leader), SSGT BILLY McKEITHE, MSGT WILEU GREY, SSGT RONALD TERRY and SSGT CECIL HODGSON.

The mission quickly disintegrated.

Team One, Eskimo, had to abort with one wounded.

A woodcutter in the hills spotted Team Two, Capital, and they were ambushed losing four men and the other two were wounded.

Team Roadrunner made initial contact with enemy forces along a streambed at around 9:30 on 28 January.

Evading uphill they were again hit at about 12:30.

During the first volley of fire that afternoon Badolati was hit in the upper left arm, the bullet almost severing the arm. Badolati begged the team to leave him and save themselves.

Ignoring his pleas, SFC Hodgson applied a tourniquet and administrated morphine while the team was still under fire.

The team then broke contact and moved about 600 yards, stopping to provide medical help to Badolati.

They immediately came under fire.

The team then split into two groups to evade the pursuing enemy.

Grey, Hodgson and Terry, evaded the ambush site in a different direction from Badolati, Huston and McKeithe.

The group with Badolati tried to use the cover along the steep slopes and after dark used a streambed to hide their trail.

Finally Badolati stated that he "could not go any further" and again begged them to leave him behind.

Again ignoring his plea, Huston and McKeithe stopped in a concealed position two to three feet up the stream bank.

Despite constant medical attention to Badolati's mangled arm, his condition continued to deteriorate.

He died in the early morning hours of 29 January 1966.

The remaining team members were forced to leave Badolati's body hidden in the boulders and scrubs with the hope to recover it with a Search and Rescue (SAR) team.

The two survivors successfully evaded and were recovered later by helicopter.

According to Homecoming II records, Grey, Hodgson and Terry successfully evaded the rest of that day and then settled into a hiding place for the night.

At first light on the 29th, the three men began moving again and did not make contact with the enemy until 4:30 that afternoon.

All three were lying in elephant grass when they saw seven Viet Cong soldiers standing four feet to the right and rear of them.

They opened fire killing three of the seven.

Shortly thereafter, Grey heard Terry yell that he had been hit and saw him holding his right side.

Suddenly Terry's body arched as another bullet struck him, it was obvious this second bullet killed Terry.

Grey could not locate Hodgson and decided to move roughly 20 feet to a more defendable position and waited in ambush for the enemy.

A little later Grey heard both enemy and Hodgson's weapons being discharged, then silence.

Grey continued to evade the enemy and was recovered the next day by helicopter.

"Charging Charlie" Beckwith was wounded on the fire support mission and left Project Delta the next week.

Of the seventeen that went into the An Lao Valley seven were killed and three wounded.

In 1999 a note from a childhood friend left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall said,

"I had a crush on Frank as a young girl. He sent me pictures from Vietnam and a lacquered box for Christmas 1965, which still sits on my dresser. I was a freshman in high school [ when Frank died ]. I have never forgotten him. The firepower was so intense you told them to go without you, and they left you wounded propped against the tree where your blood fed the shadows. Did you notice the silence of the birds ? As you waited for the helicopter, did you remember the way the sun used to strike the corner of your house [ in Goffstown ] at first light ? Did you think of the picnic where your buddies ran around the meadow chasing a greased pig ? We danced in the clover and you held me so close I swallowed your scent. When nobody came did you wonder what would happen to the car you and a friend painted to match your jungle fatigues ? And when the light faded, could you hear me call your name ?".

The name of FRANK NEIL BADOLATI can be found on panel 04E, Line 105 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.





YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

NOR SHALL YOU EVER BE

RONALD TERRANCE TERRY

Name:

RONALD TERRANCE TERRY

Rank/Branch:

E6 / US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES

Unit:

HEADQUARTERS & HEADQUARTERS COMPANY
DETACHMENT B-52
PROJECT DELTA
5th SPECIAL FORCES GROUP ( AIRBORNE )
1st SPECIAL FORCES GROUP

Other Personnel In Incident:

CECIL JOE HODGSON ( missing )
FRANK NEIL BADOLATI ( missing )
WILEY W. GREY ( survivor )
( other survivors )

FRANK NEIL BADOLATI and RONALD TERRANCE TERRY were riflemen on a Special Forces reconnaissance team operating in An Lao Valley of Binh Dinh Province, 12 miles west of Tam Quan in South Vietnam when his team was split during a firefight.

The patrol came under enemy fire on the afternoon of 28 January 1966 during which time Badolati was hit.

CECIL JOE HODGSON, the patrol leader, from Detachment B52 Delta, was apparently treating Badolati's wounds as the patrol traveled in small groups from the location where Badolati was hit.

Badolati was with two other individuals who survived, and as he was too badly wounded to continue, the three remained for about two hours in their position.

Badolati's condition worsened, and when the two survivors left the area, they reported that Badolati was dead. They had no choice but to leave his body behind.

Hodgson and Terry evaded for the rest of the day.

On 29 January they moved at first light into a defensive position, whereupon they encountered enemy forces and another firefight ensued.

Terry indicated that he had been hit, and others thought he had been killed.

When they looked for Hodgson, he was gone.

Survivors heard additional shots, which they believed were shots fired at Hodgson, and they believed he also had been killed.

The team could not search for Hodgson because of the heavy enemy activity, and were forced to move to a rallying point.

They evaded capture for the remainder of the day, and were ultimately picked up by helicopter.

Searches for all three missing were conducted for the next 4 days with no results.

Hodgson was classified Missing In Action.

Badolati and Terry were classified Killed / Body Not Recovered.

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I have not forgotten you. I chair the Adoption Committee for The National League of Families of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action in Southeast Asia. We will always remember the 1,889 Americans still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia and the thousands of others that lost their lives. We will not stop our efforts until all of you are home where you belong.

We need to reach the next generation so that they will carry on when our generation is no longer able. To do so, we are attempting to locate photographs of all the missing. If you are reading this remembrance and have a photo and/or memory of this missing American that you would like to share for our project, please contact me at:

Candace Lokey
PO Box 206
Freeport, PA 16229
[email protected]

If you are not familiar with our organization, please visit our web site at :

www.pow-miafamilies.org

I didn't know Ron Terry personally. I served in the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) 20 years after SSG Terry was reported missing in Vietnam. I learned about him at SF reunions and memorial ceremonies, where many of the old Green Beret veterans spoke very highly of him. Ron had spent years with the old 1st SF Group on Okinawa, and volunteered for some of the most dangerous long-range recon operations in Vietnam and Laos. It was on just such a mission that he disappeared. He is still so highly regarded that when 1st Special Forces moved into a brand-new state-of-the-art complex at Fort Lewis, WA in the late 1980's, one of the barracks buildings was named in honor of SSG Ron Terry. Here's a salute to this outstanding soldier -- gone, but never forgotten.

LTC Hank Cramer
1st SFG (1984-1988)