Seattle Daily Times, WA, Friday, August 23, 1974, pg. E11, col. 6
Sergeant honored posthumously
Master Sgt. Jerry Michael Shriver was honored posthumously yesterday at Fort Lawton, the first missing-in-action person from this area to be so honored.
Shriver was pronounced dead by the Army after being missing in Laos five years.
The sergeant's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Shriver of Bellevue, attended the ceremony along with the sergeant's brothers and sisters, Colleen, 18, Bonnie, 17, Patrick, 20, Roger, 27 and John, 23.
Shriver's six posthumous awards include the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military honor.
Lt. Col. Douglas Horne, special assistant to the chief of staff at Ft. Lewis, presented Mrs. Shriver with an American flag, a Special Forces green beret like Shriver once had worn and a plaque with the six medals attached.
A 21-gun salute honored the sergeant. Members of Company B, 75th Rangers, 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, served as the honor guard.
+++
From the Virtual Wall website
Jerry Michael Shriver
Master Sergeant
CCS, MACV-SOG, 5TH SF GROUP, USARV
Army of the United States
Sacramento, California
September 24, 1941 to June 10, 1974
(Incident Date April 24, 1969)
JERRY M SHRIVER is on the Wall at Panel W26, Line 41
See the full profile or name rubbing for Jerry Shriver
Notes from The Virtual Wall
SFC Jerry M. Shriver was part of a mixed US Special Forces/Montagnard force inserted into the immediate vicinity of a North Vietnamese Army headquarters located just across the Cambodian border in the Fishhook area.
The platoon was taken under heavy fire by NVA troops immediately after the insertion, leading to an all-day battle before suppressive fires finally reduced the enemy opposition to the point that the platoon (and a small supporting force separately inserted) could be extracted.
A total of 24 men had been inserted; 17 were recovered, and of those 17 ten were wounded and one was dead (1LT Gregory M. Harrigan). Two Americans and five Montagnards were not recovered; one of the seven, medic SGT Ernest C. Jamison, was known dead, while the other six were listed as Missing in Action. The remains of SGT Jamison and one of the Montagnards were recovered in 1970.
According to the Task Force Omega site, a Radio Hanoi broadcast indicated that Shriver had been killed in the fighting. However, he was carried as MIA until 10 June 1974, when the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death. During this time he was promoted from E-7 to E-8. As of 04 June 2004 his remains have not been repatriated.
There is a marker for Master Sergeant Jerry M. Shriver in the Fort Lawton Federal Cemetery in Seattle, Washington (Plot 4-235, placed 08/22/1974).
Unofficial information indicates that Master Sergeant Shriver was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam and received two Silver Stars, the Soldier's Medal, seven Bronze Stars (6 Oak Leaf Clusters), the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, and four Army Commendation Medals for valor - a total of 20 decorations when you include the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
+++
From the P.O.W. Network website
SHRIVER, JERRY MICHAEL
Name: Jerry Michael "Mad Dog" Shriver
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces
Unit: CCS - MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 24 September 1941 (De Funiak Springs FL)
Home City of Record: Sacramento CA
Date of Loss: 24 April 1969
Country of Loss: Cambodia (some older records say Laos)
Loss Coordinates: 165048N 1063158E (XT441913)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Ref no: 1431
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 2001 with material provided by a family member.
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: SFC Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver was a legendary Green Beret. He was an exploitation platoon leader with Command and Control South, MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.
On the morning of April 24, 1969, Shriver's hatchet platoon was air assaulted into Cambodia by four helicopters. Upon departing the helicopter, the team had begun moving toward its initial target point when it came under heavy volumes of enemy fire from several machine gun bunkers and entrenched enemy positions estimated to be at least a company-sized element.
Shriver was last seen by the company commander, Capt. Paul D. Cahill, as Shriver was moving against the machine gun bunkers and entering a tree line on the southwest edge of the LZ with a trusted Montagnard striker. Capt. Cahill and Sgt. Ernest C. Jamison, the platoon medical aidman, took cover in a bomb crater. Cahill continued radio contact with Shriver for four hours until his transmission was broken and Shriver was not heard from again. It was known that Shriver had been wounded 3 or 4 times. An enemy soldier was later seen picking up a weapon that appeared to be the same type carried by Shriver.
Jamison left the crater to retrieve one of the wounded Montagnards who had fallen in the charge. The medic reached the soldier but was almost torn apart by concentrated machine gun fire. At that moment Cahill was wounded in the right eye, which resulted in his total blindness for the next 30 minutes. The platoon radioman, Y-Sum Nie, desperately radioed for immediate extraction.
Maj. Benjamin T. Kapp, Jr. was in the command helicopter and could see the platoon pinned down across the broken ground and rims of bomb craters. North Vietnamese machine guns were firing into the bodies in front of their positions and covering the open ground with grazing fire. The assistant platoon leader, 1Lt. Gregory M. Harrigan, reported within minutes that half the platoon was killed or wounded. Harrigan himself was killed 45 minutes later.
Helicopter gunships and A1E aircraft bombed and rocketed the NVA defenses. The heavy ground fire peppered the aircraft in return, wounding one door gunner during low-level strafing. Several attempts to lift out survivors had to be aborted. Ten airstrikes and 1,500 rockets had been placed in the area in an attempt to make a safe extraction possible. 1Lt. Walter L. Marcantel, the third in command, called for napalm only ten yards from his frontline, and both he and his nine remaining commandos were burned by splashing napalm.
After seven hours of contact, three helicopters dashed in and pulled out 15 wounded troops. As the aircraft lifted off, several crewmen saw movement in a bomb crater. A fourth helicopter set down, and Lt. Daniel Hall twice raced over to the bomb crater. On the first trip, he recovered the badly wounded radio operator, and on the second trip, he dragged Harrigan's body back to the helicopter. The aircraft was being buffeted by shellfire and took off immediately afterwards. No further MACV-SOG insertions were made into the NVA stronghold. Jamison was declared dead and Shriver Missing in Action.
On June 12, 1970, a search and recovery element from a graves registration unit recovered human remains that were later identified as Sgt. Jamison, but no trace was found of Shriver.
For every insertion like Shriver's that were detected and stopped, dozens of other commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of targets and collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American campaign of raiding, sabotage and intelligence-gathering waged on foreign soil in U.S. military history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a global reputation as one of the most combat effective deep-penetration forces ever raised.
The missions Shriver and others were assigned were exceedingly dangerous and of strategic importance. The men who were put into such situations knew the chances of their recovery if captured was slim to none. They quite naturally assumed that their freedom would come by the end of the war. For 591 Americans, freedom did come at the end of the war. For another 2500, however, freedom has never come.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to missing Americans in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., convincing many authorities that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Jerry Shriver's friends claim they heard on "Hanoi Hannah" that "Mad Dog" Shriver had been captured. They wonder if he is among the hundreds said to be alive today. If so, what must he think of us?
His accomplishments were so well known that Radio Hanoi nicknamed him "MAD DOG" and offered a reward of $10,000.00 for his death or capture.
Below is a list of the personal decorations he received:
2 Silver Stars
3 Army Commendation Medals for Valor
1 Soldier's Medal
1 Air Medal
7 Bronze Stars for Valor
1 Purple Heart
Several Awards in Veitnamesse
There are copies of ALL of these and NOW unclassified records.
He is on "The Memorial Wall " in Washington,D.C.
P-26W/L41
He is also featured in January 1997 "Soldier Of Fortune"
He is in the following:
"SOG" by John L Plaster
"Code Name: Copperhead" by Sergeant Major Joe R. Garner
"The Last Medal of Honor" by Pete Billac
Master Sergeant Shriver was a member of Command and Control South, 5th Special Forces Group. On April 24, 1969, he was a member of an air assault team into Cambodia, where the team got into a fire fight. He was listed as Missing in Action. His remains were not recovered.
Sergeant honored posthumously
Master Sgt. Jerry Michael Shriver was honored posthumously yesterday at Fort Lawton, the first missing-in-action person from this area to be so honored.
Shriver was pronounced dead by the Army after being missing in Laos five years.
The sergeant's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Shriver of Bellevue, attended the ceremony along with the sergeant's brothers and sisters, Colleen, 18, Bonnie, 17, Patrick, 20, Roger, 27 and John, 23.
Shriver's six posthumous awards include the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military honor.
Lt. Col. Douglas Horne, special assistant to the chief of staff at Ft. Lewis, presented Mrs. Shriver with an American flag, a Special Forces green beret like Shriver once had worn and a plaque with the six medals attached.
A 21-gun salute honored the sergeant. Members of Company B, 75th Rangers, 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, served as the honor guard.
+++
From the Virtual Wall website
Jerry Michael Shriver
Master Sergeant
CCS, MACV-SOG, 5TH SF GROUP, USARV
Army of the United States
Sacramento, California
September 24, 1941 to June 10, 1974
(Incident Date April 24, 1969)
JERRY M SHRIVER is on the Wall at Panel W26, Line 41
See the full profile or name rubbing for Jerry Shriver
Notes from The Virtual Wall
SFC Jerry M. Shriver was part of a mixed US Special Forces/Montagnard force inserted into the immediate vicinity of a North Vietnamese Army headquarters located just across the Cambodian border in the Fishhook area.
The platoon was taken under heavy fire by NVA troops immediately after the insertion, leading to an all-day battle before suppressive fires finally reduced the enemy opposition to the point that the platoon (and a small supporting force separately inserted) could be extracted.
A total of 24 men had been inserted; 17 were recovered, and of those 17 ten were wounded and one was dead (1LT Gregory M. Harrigan). Two Americans and five Montagnards were not recovered; one of the seven, medic SGT Ernest C. Jamison, was known dead, while the other six were listed as Missing in Action. The remains of SGT Jamison and one of the Montagnards were recovered in 1970.
According to the Task Force Omega site, a Radio Hanoi broadcast indicated that Shriver had been killed in the fighting. However, he was carried as MIA until 10 June 1974, when the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death. During this time he was promoted from E-7 to E-8. As of 04 June 2004 his remains have not been repatriated.
There is a marker for Master Sergeant Jerry M. Shriver in the Fort Lawton Federal Cemetery in Seattle, Washington (Plot 4-235, placed 08/22/1974).
Unofficial information indicates that Master Sergeant Shriver was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam and received two Silver Stars, the Soldier's Medal, seven Bronze Stars (6 Oak Leaf Clusters), the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, and four Army Commendation Medals for valor - a total of 20 decorations when you include the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
+++
From the P.O.W. Network website
SHRIVER, JERRY MICHAEL
Name: Jerry Michael "Mad Dog" Shriver
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces
Unit: CCS - MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 24 September 1941 (De Funiak Springs FL)
Home City of Record: Sacramento CA
Date of Loss: 24 April 1969
Country of Loss: Cambodia (some older records say Laos)
Loss Coordinates: 165048N 1063158E (XT441913)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Ref no: 1431
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 2001 with material provided by a family member.
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: SFC Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver was a legendary Green Beret. He was an exploitation platoon leader with Command and Control South, MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.
On the morning of April 24, 1969, Shriver's hatchet platoon was air assaulted into Cambodia by four helicopters. Upon departing the helicopter, the team had begun moving toward its initial target point when it came under heavy volumes of enemy fire from several machine gun bunkers and entrenched enemy positions estimated to be at least a company-sized element.
Shriver was last seen by the company commander, Capt. Paul D. Cahill, as Shriver was moving against the machine gun bunkers and entering a tree line on the southwest edge of the LZ with a trusted Montagnard striker. Capt. Cahill and Sgt. Ernest C. Jamison, the platoon medical aidman, took cover in a bomb crater. Cahill continued radio contact with Shriver for four hours until his transmission was broken and Shriver was not heard from again. It was known that Shriver had been wounded 3 or 4 times. An enemy soldier was later seen picking up a weapon that appeared to be the same type carried by Shriver.
Jamison left the crater to retrieve one of the wounded Montagnards who had fallen in the charge. The medic reached the soldier but was almost torn apart by concentrated machine gun fire. At that moment Cahill was wounded in the right eye, which resulted in his total blindness for the next 30 minutes. The platoon radioman, Y-Sum Nie, desperately radioed for immediate extraction.
Maj. Benjamin T. Kapp, Jr. was in the command helicopter and could see the platoon pinned down across the broken ground and rims of bomb craters. North Vietnamese machine guns were firing into the bodies in front of their positions and covering the open ground with grazing fire. The assistant platoon leader, 1Lt. Gregory M. Harrigan, reported within minutes that half the platoon was killed or wounded. Harrigan himself was killed 45 minutes later.
Helicopter gunships and A1E aircraft bombed and rocketed the NVA defenses. The heavy ground fire peppered the aircraft in return, wounding one door gunner during low-level strafing. Several attempts to lift out survivors had to be aborted. Ten airstrikes and 1,500 rockets had been placed in the area in an attempt to make a safe extraction possible. 1Lt. Walter L. Marcantel, the third in command, called for napalm only ten yards from his frontline, and both he and his nine remaining commandos were burned by splashing napalm.
After seven hours of contact, three helicopters dashed in and pulled out 15 wounded troops. As the aircraft lifted off, several crewmen saw movement in a bomb crater. A fourth helicopter set down, and Lt. Daniel Hall twice raced over to the bomb crater. On the first trip, he recovered the badly wounded radio operator, and on the second trip, he dragged Harrigan's body back to the helicopter. The aircraft was being buffeted by shellfire and took off immediately afterwards. No further MACV-SOG insertions were made into the NVA stronghold. Jamison was declared dead and Shriver Missing in Action.
On June 12, 1970, a search and recovery element from a graves registration unit recovered human remains that were later identified as Sgt. Jamison, but no trace was found of Shriver.
For every insertion like Shriver's that were detected and stopped, dozens of other commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of targets and collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American campaign of raiding, sabotage and intelligence-gathering waged on foreign soil in U.S. military history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a global reputation as one of the most combat effective deep-penetration forces ever raised.
The missions Shriver and others were assigned were exceedingly dangerous and of strategic importance. The men who were put into such situations knew the chances of their recovery if captured was slim to none. They quite naturally assumed that their freedom would come by the end of the war. For 591 Americans, freedom did come at the end of the war. For another 2500, however, freedom has never come.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to missing Americans in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., convincing many authorities that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Jerry Shriver's friends claim they heard on "Hanoi Hannah" that "Mad Dog" Shriver had been captured. They wonder if he is among the hundreds said to be alive today. If so, what must he think of us?
His accomplishments were so well known that Radio Hanoi nicknamed him "MAD DOG" and offered a reward of $10,000.00 for his death or capture.
Below is a list of the personal decorations he received:
2 Silver Stars
3 Army Commendation Medals for Valor
1 Soldier's Medal
1 Air Medal
7 Bronze Stars for Valor
1 Purple Heart
Several Awards in Veitnamesse
There are copies of ALL of these and NOW unclassified records.
He is on "The Memorial Wall " in Washington,D.C.
P-26W/L41
He is also featured in January 1997 "Soldier Of Fortune"
He is in the following:
"SOG" by John L Plaster
"Code Name: Copperhead" by Sergeant Major Joe R. Garner
"The Last Medal of Honor" by Pete Billac
Master Sergeant Shriver was a member of Command and Control South, 5th Special Forces Group. On April 24, 1969, he was a member of an air assault team into Cambodia, where the team got into a fire fight. He was listed as Missing in Action. His remains were not recovered.
Seattle Daily Times, WA, Friday, August 23, 1974, pg. E11, col. 6
Sergeant honored posthumously
Master Sgt. Jerry Michael Shriver was honored posthumously yesterday at Fort Lawton, the first missing-in-action person from this area to be so honored.
Shriver was pronounced dead by the Army after being missing in Laos five years.
The sergeant's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Shriver of Bellevue, attended the ceremony along with the sergeant's brothers and sisters, Colleen, 18, Bonnie, 17, Patrick, 20, Roger, 27 and John, 23.
Shriver's six posthumous awards include the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military honor.
Lt. Col. Douglas Horne, special assistant to the chief of staff at Ft. Lewis, presented Mrs. Shriver with an American flag, a Special Forces green beret like Shriver once had worn and a plaque with the six medals attached.
A 21-gun salute honored the sergeant. Members of Company B, 75th Rangers, 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, served as the honor guard.
+++
From the Virtual Wall website
Jerry Michael Shriver
Master Sergeant
CCS, MACV-SOG, 5TH SF GROUP, USARV
Army of the United States
Sacramento, California
September 24, 1941 to June 10, 1974
(Incident Date April 24, 1969)
JERRY M SHRIVER is on the Wall at Panel W26, Line 41
See the full profile or name rubbing for Jerry Shriver
Notes from The Virtual Wall
SFC Jerry M. Shriver was part of a mixed US Special Forces/Montagnard force inserted into the immediate vicinity of a North Vietnamese Army headquarters located just across the Cambodian border in the Fishhook area.
The platoon was taken under heavy fire by NVA troops immediately after the insertion, leading to an all-day battle before suppressive fires finally reduced the enemy opposition to the point that the platoon (and a small supporting force separately inserted) could be extracted.
A total of 24 men had been inserted; 17 were recovered, and of those 17 ten were wounded and one was dead (1LT Gregory M. Harrigan). Two Americans and five Montagnards were not recovered; one of the seven, medic SGT Ernest C. Jamison, was known dead, while the other six were listed as Missing in Action. The remains of SGT Jamison and one of the Montagnards were recovered in 1970.
According to the Task Force Omega site, a Radio Hanoi broadcast indicated that Shriver had been killed in the fighting. However, he was carried as MIA until 10 June 1974, when the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death. During this time he was promoted from E-7 to E-8. As of 04 June 2004 his remains have not been repatriated.
There is a marker for Master Sergeant Jerry M. Shriver in the Fort Lawton Federal Cemetery in Seattle, Washington (Plot 4-235, placed 08/22/1974).
Unofficial information indicates that Master Sergeant Shriver was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam and received two Silver Stars, the Soldier's Medal, seven Bronze Stars (6 Oak Leaf Clusters), the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, and four Army Commendation Medals for valor - a total of 20 decorations when you include the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
+++
From the P.O.W. Network website
SHRIVER, JERRY MICHAEL
Name: Jerry Michael "Mad Dog" Shriver
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces
Unit: CCS - MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 24 September 1941 (De Funiak Springs FL)
Home City of Record: Sacramento CA
Date of Loss: 24 April 1969
Country of Loss: Cambodia (some older records say Laos)
Loss Coordinates: 165048N 1063158E (XT441913)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Ref no: 1431
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 2001 with material provided by a family member.
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: SFC Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver was a legendary Green Beret. He was an exploitation platoon leader with Command and Control South, MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.
On the morning of April 24, 1969, Shriver's hatchet platoon was air assaulted into Cambodia by four helicopters. Upon departing the helicopter, the team had begun moving toward its initial target point when it came under heavy volumes of enemy fire from several machine gun bunkers and entrenched enemy positions estimated to be at least a company-sized element.
Shriver was last seen by the company commander, Capt. Paul D. Cahill, as Shriver was moving against the machine gun bunkers and entering a tree line on the southwest edge of the LZ with a trusted Montagnard striker. Capt. Cahill and Sgt. Ernest C. Jamison, the platoon medical aidman, took cover in a bomb crater. Cahill continued radio contact with Shriver for four hours until his transmission was broken and Shriver was not heard from again. It was known that Shriver had been wounded 3 or 4 times. An enemy soldier was later seen picking up a weapon that appeared to be the same type carried by Shriver.
Jamison left the crater to retrieve one of the wounded Montagnards who had fallen in the charge. The medic reached the soldier but was almost torn apart by concentrated machine gun fire. At that moment Cahill was wounded in the right eye, which resulted in his total blindness for the next 30 minutes. The platoon radioman, Y-Sum Nie, desperately radioed for immediate extraction.
Maj. Benjamin T. Kapp, Jr. was in the command helicopter and could see the platoon pinned down across the broken ground and rims of bomb craters. North Vietnamese machine guns were firing into the bodies in front of their positions and covering the open ground with grazing fire. The assistant platoon leader, 1Lt. Gregory M. Harrigan, reported within minutes that half the platoon was killed or wounded. Harrigan himself was killed 45 minutes later.
Helicopter gunships and A1E aircraft bombed and rocketed the NVA defenses. The heavy ground fire peppered the aircraft in return, wounding one door gunner during low-level strafing. Several attempts to lift out survivors had to be aborted. Ten airstrikes and 1,500 rockets had been placed in the area in an attempt to make a safe extraction possible. 1Lt. Walter L. Marcantel, the third in command, called for napalm only ten yards from his frontline, and both he and his nine remaining commandos were burned by splashing napalm.
After seven hours of contact, three helicopters dashed in and pulled out 15 wounded troops. As the aircraft lifted off, several crewmen saw movement in a bomb crater. A fourth helicopter set down, and Lt. Daniel Hall twice raced over to the bomb crater. On the first trip, he recovered the badly wounded radio operator, and on the second trip, he dragged Harrigan's body back to the helicopter. The aircraft was being buffeted by shellfire and took off immediately afterwards. No further MACV-SOG insertions were made into the NVA stronghold. Jamison was declared dead and Shriver Missing in Action.
On June 12, 1970, a search and recovery element from a graves registration unit recovered human remains that were later identified as Sgt. Jamison, but no trace was found of Shriver.
For every insertion like Shriver's that were detected and stopped, dozens of other commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of targets and collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American campaign of raiding, sabotage and intelligence-gathering waged on foreign soil in U.S. military history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a global reputation as one of the most combat effective deep-penetration forces ever raised.
The missions Shriver and others were assigned were exceedingly dangerous and of strategic importance. The men who were put into such situations knew the chances of their recovery if captured was slim to none. They quite naturally assumed that their freedom would come by the end of the war. For 591 Americans, freedom did come at the end of the war. For another 2500, however, freedom has never come.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to missing Americans in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., convincing many authorities that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Jerry Shriver's friends claim they heard on "Hanoi Hannah" that "Mad Dog" Shriver had been captured. They wonder if he is among the hundreds said to be alive today. If so, what must he think of us?
His accomplishments were so well known that Radio Hanoi nicknamed him "MAD DOG" and offered a reward of $10,000.00 for his death or capture.
Below is a list of the personal decorations he received:
2 Silver Stars
3 Army Commendation Medals for Valor
1 Soldier's Medal
1 Air Medal
7 Bronze Stars for Valor
1 Purple Heart
Several Awards in Veitnamesse
There are copies of ALL of these and NOW unclassified records.
He is on "The Memorial Wall " in Washington,D.C.
P-26W/L41
He is also featured in January 1997 "Soldier Of Fortune"
He is in the following:
"SOG" by John L Plaster
"Code Name: Copperhead" by Sergeant Major Joe R. Garner
"The Last Medal of Honor" by Pete Billac
Master Sergeant Shriver was a member of Command and Control South, 5th Special Forces Group. On April 24, 1969, he was a member of an air assault team into Cambodia, where the team got into a fire fight. He was listed as Missing in Action. His remains were not recovered.
Sergeant honored posthumously
Master Sgt. Jerry Michael Shriver was honored posthumously yesterday at Fort Lawton, the first missing-in-action person from this area to be so honored.
Shriver was pronounced dead by the Army after being missing in Laos five years.
The sergeant's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Shriver of Bellevue, attended the ceremony along with the sergeant's brothers and sisters, Colleen, 18, Bonnie, 17, Patrick, 20, Roger, 27 and John, 23.
Shriver's six posthumous awards include the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military honor.
Lt. Col. Douglas Horne, special assistant to the chief of staff at Ft. Lewis, presented Mrs. Shriver with an American flag, a Special Forces green beret like Shriver once had worn and a plaque with the six medals attached.
A 21-gun salute honored the sergeant. Members of Company B, 75th Rangers, 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, served as the honor guard.
+++
From the Virtual Wall website
Jerry Michael Shriver
Master Sergeant
CCS, MACV-SOG, 5TH SF GROUP, USARV
Army of the United States
Sacramento, California
September 24, 1941 to June 10, 1974
(Incident Date April 24, 1969)
JERRY M SHRIVER is on the Wall at Panel W26, Line 41
See the full profile or name rubbing for Jerry Shriver
Notes from The Virtual Wall
SFC Jerry M. Shriver was part of a mixed US Special Forces/Montagnard force inserted into the immediate vicinity of a North Vietnamese Army headquarters located just across the Cambodian border in the Fishhook area.
The platoon was taken under heavy fire by NVA troops immediately after the insertion, leading to an all-day battle before suppressive fires finally reduced the enemy opposition to the point that the platoon (and a small supporting force separately inserted) could be extracted.
A total of 24 men had been inserted; 17 were recovered, and of those 17 ten were wounded and one was dead (1LT Gregory M. Harrigan). Two Americans and five Montagnards were not recovered; one of the seven, medic SGT Ernest C. Jamison, was known dead, while the other six were listed as Missing in Action. The remains of SGT Jamison and one of the Montagnards were recovered in 1970.
According to the Task Force Omega site, a Radio Hanoi broadcast indicated that Shriver had been killed in the fighting. However, he was carried as MIA until 10 June 1974, when the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death. During this time he was promoted from E-7 to E-8. As of 04 June 2004 his remains have not been repatriated.
There is a marker for Master Sergeant Jerry M. Shriver in the Fort Lawton Federal Cemetery in Seattle, Washington (Plot 4-235, placed 08/22/1974).
Unofficial information indicates that Master Sergeant Shriver was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam and received two Silver Stars, the Soldier's Medal, seven Bronze Stars (6 Oak Leaf Clusters), the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, and four Army Commendation Medals for valor - a total of 20 decorations when you include the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
+++
From the P.O.W. Network website
SHRIVER, JERRY MICHAEL
Name: Jerry Michael "Mad Dog" Shriver
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces
Unit: CCS - MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 24 September 1941 (De Funiak Springs FL)
Home City of Record: Sacramento CA
Date of Loss: 24 April 1969
Country of Loss: Cambodia (some older records say Laos)
Loss Coordinates: 165048N 1063158E (XT441913)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Ref no: 1431
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 2001 with material provided by a family member.
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: SFC Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver was a legendary Green Beret. He was an exploitation platoon leader with Command and Control South, MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.
On the morning of April 24, 1969, Shriver's hatchet platoon was air assaulted into Cambodia by four helicopters. Upon departing the helicopter, the team had begun moving toward its initial target point when it came under heavy volumes of enemy fire from several machine gun bunkers and entrenched enemy positions estimated to be at least a company-sized element.
Shriver was last seen by the company commander, Capt. Paul D. Cahill, as Shriver was moving against the machine gun bunkers and entering a tree line on the southwest edge of the LZ with a trusted Montagnard striker. Capt. Cahill and Sgt. Ernest C. Jamison, the platoon medical aidman, took cover in a bomb crater. Cahill continued radio contact with Shriver for four hours until his transmission was broken and Shriver was not heard from again. It was known that Shriver had been wounded 3 or 4 times. An enemy soldier was later seen picking up a weapon that appeared to be the same type carried by Shriver.
Jamison left the crater to retrieve one of the wounded Montagnards who had fallen in the charge. The medic reached the soldier but was almost torn apart by concentrated machine gun fire. At that moment Cahill was wounded in the right eye, which resulted in his total blindness for the next 30 minutes. The platoon radioman, Y-Sum Nie, desperately radioed for immediate extraction.
Maj. Benjamin T. Kapp, Jr. was in the command helicopter and could see the platoon pinned down across the broken ground and rims of bomb craters. North Vietnamese machine guns were firing into the bodies in front of their positions and covering the open ground with grazing fire. The assistant platoon leader, 1Lt. Gregory M. Harrigan, reported within minutes that half the platoon was killed or wounded. Harrigan himself was killed 45 minutes later.
Helicopter gunships and A1E aircraft bombed and rocketed the NVA defenses. The heavy ground fire peppered the aircraft in return, wounding one door gunner during low-level strafing. Several attempts to lift out survivors had to be aborted. Ten airstrikes and 1,500 rockets had been placed in the area in an attempt to make a safe extraction possible. 1Lt. Walter L. Marcantel, the third in command, called for napalm only ten yards from his frontline, and both he and his nine remaining commandos were burned by splashing napalm.
After seven hours of contact, three helicopters dashed in and pulled out 15 wounded troops. As the aircraft lifted off, several crewmen saw movement in a bomb crater. A fourth helicopter set down, and Lt. Daniel Hall twice raced over to the bomb crater. On the first trip, he recovered the badly wounded radio operator, and on the second trip, he dragged Harrigan's body back to the helicopter. The aircraft was being buffeted by shellfire and took off immediately afterwards. No further MACV-SOG insertions were made into the NVA stronghold. Jamison was declared dead and Shriver Missing in Action.
On June 12, 1970, a search and recovery element from a graves registration unit recovered human remains that were later identified as Sgt. Jamison, but no trace was found of Shriver.
For every insertion like Shriver's that were detected and stopped, dozens of other commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of targets and collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American campaign of raiding, sabotage and intelligence-gathering waged on foreign soil in U.S. military history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a global reputation as one of the most combat effective deep-penetration forces ever raised.
The missions Shriver and others were assigned were exceedingly dangerous and of strategic importance. The men who were put into such situations knew the chances of their recovery if captured was slim to none. They quite naturally assumed that their freedom would come by the end of the war. For 591 Americans, freedom did come at the end of the war. For another 2500, however, freedom has never come.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to missing Americans in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., convincing many authorities that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Jerry Shriver's friends claim they heard on "Hanoi Hannah" that "Mad Dog" Shriver had been captured. They wonder if he is among the hundreds said to be alive today. If so, what must he think of us?
His accomplishments were so well known that Radio Hanoi nicknamed him "MAD DOG" and offered a reward of $10,000.00 for his death or capture.
Below is a list of the personal decorations he received:
2 Silver Stars
3 Army Commendation Medals for Valor
1 Soldier's Medal
1 Air Medal
7 Bronze Stars for Valor
1 Purple Heart
Several Awards in Veitnamesse
There are copies of ALL of these and NOW unclassified records.
He is on "The Memorial Wall " in Washington,D.C.
P-26W/L41
He is also featured in January 1997 "Soldier Of Fortune"
He is in the following:
"SOG" by John L Plaster
"Code Name: Copperhead" by Sergeant Major Joe R. Garner
"The Last Medal of Honor" by Pete Billac
Master Sergeant Shriver was a member of Command and Control South, 5th Special Forces Group. On April 24, 1969, he was a member of an air assault team into Cambodia, where the team got into a fire fight. He was listed as Missing in Action. His remains were not recovered.
Inscription
MSG
US ARMY
VIETNAM
