Seeking Information on 4 Lima Site-85 Prisoners of War

By William R. Peterson, TLC Brotherhood, Vietnam War Commemoration Chair

[Note to the reader—There will be a much expanded version of this request for information in the Air Commando Journal in November]

I am looking for any information that someone out there might have, regarding the three POWs, Master Sergeant Calfee, Technical Sergeant Hall, and Staff Sergeant Worley from the attack on Lima Site 85 (Laos) 10-11 March 1968.

Who Am I?

During my tour in Vietnam I served as the Senior Director of the TACC-North Sector, a state of the art digital control center, that was the forward Battle Staff for HQ 7th Air Force responsible for Operations Rolling Thunder, Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger. After Vietnam, I went back to the USAF Air Defense Command as Senior Director, followed by a career in Special Intelligence and served for two years as NSA Liaison to the OSD Special Office for POW-MIA.

The Search Begins

Thirty two years after I left Vietnam I discovered Colonel Gerald Clayton on the internet. He was the commander of all the precision radar-guided bombing system sites, known as SKYSPOT, in Vietnam, Thailand, and Lima Site 85 in northeast Laos and we worked together to solve problems together during the war.

We became good friends in 2005 and began a partnership to discover what happened to his 16 men working the radar system at LS 85 after the battle on 11 March 1968—4 men were rescued and 12 men were designated MIA. Almost everything about the site was still classified and we had to wait for the classified document downgrading schedule to take effect.

The first problem was the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Office had written a narrative that was of little use because it was filled with errors and omissions. Our personal knowledge of events was at odds with the “official” narrative and why I am reaching out to the ACA members.

Some Facts After the Attack:

Late on the day of the attack the U.S. Ambassador declared that all 16 Commando Club men were KIA during the battle. The real accounting should have been: Four rescued by Air America on the day of the attack. Four escaped and were MIA evading somewhere on the mountain. One was rescued by USAF Jolly 67 from the top of the mountain. Seven others, sadly, were KIA verified by surviving witnesses.

During our investigation, we learned that the group of three Americans arrived at the hamlet of Houei Hok northwest the Phou Pha Thi mountain on the morning of 14 March 1968. Airman Price, one of the three, died and was buried at some unknown location on the periphery of that hamlet, leaving Worley and Calfee. Airman Price’s remains have been found, very recently verified, and returned to his family. Hall was delivered by the PAVN making three captives.

In our search, we discovered that Worley and Hall were taken to a major POW cave complex near Xam Neua and Calfee was taken to a different camp. Finally, we have a report that indicates four POWs, two pilots and two LS-85 technicians, were flown by a Russian aircraft to a prison in the USSR. That is where their trail ends, for now.

What We Need To Know

We would like to fill in some blanks regarding each of the three remaining POW/MIAs from Commando Club at LS 85— Hall, Worley, and Calfee.

TSgt Hall is a mystery because nobody can account for his whereabouts before and during the battle. He should have been on top the mountain, like the other support troops, ready to receive incoming Frag Orders for 12 March air operations and/or solve any radio or crypto problems. What he knew was extremely high on the enemy list of essential elements of information and he would have been a high value target to capture.

SSgt Worley’s specialty in radar technology and scope operations would have made him a high value person, same as TSgt Hall. Both Hall and Worley were reported to be in a prison in Chechnya and that is where their trail goes cold.

MSgt Calfee had a great amount of experience on the tracking system used to determine B-52 bombing effectiveness. When the attack occurred he was the third person to be shot, the other two died. Sergeant Calfee crawled under the radar ops van with his M-16 and over the next five hours killed enemy commandos, saving two American lives, as reported by one of the survivors he saved. In making his escape, he broke through “the enemy line” using close contact fighting to kill one other Dac Cong soldier and taking his weapon. Years later, the enemy reported losses of 16 out of 20 commandos. Calfee’s actions delayed the enemy attack on the helicopter, which facilitated the rescue of his four team mates. MSgt Calfee was awarded the Silver Star 42 years after the battle at LS 85.

In Conclusion

After 55 years of misinformation, disinformation, lazy, incorrect narratives copied without further or critical investigation, our 11 next of kin families have yet to learn what they yearn to know about their loved one. If you can provide us with one more precious piece of information you believe is factual and the source is reliable, please contact me at pr@tlc-brotherhood.com or call my cell at 410-739-9998 Eastern. My team and I will take it from there.

William R. Peterson, MA, MS
Denton, MD

Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood
Vietnam War Commemoration Chair
Monkey Mountain, Vietnam
Korat RTAFB Thailand
Houaphan Air Missions, Laos
1967-1968

Consider donating to the Air Commando Association to support our war fighters. Every donation counts!