Military Intelligence: "Always Out Front" in Vietnam War

By Lori S. TaggNovember 16, 2015

Fort Huachuca, Arizona - The April article of the Vietnam history series focused on Military Intelligence-related Medal of Honor recipients.

This article highlights a few individuals whose actions also merit attention. Currently, it is unknown how many Army Intelligence personnel served in the conflict in Southeast Asia. However, Retired Lt. Col. Mike Bigelow, the Intelligence and Security Command historian, has begun an effort to identify those who lost their lives during the war. So far, he has compiled a list of 234 killed between 1961 and 1972. The youngest was 18, the oldest 47.

Sgt. 1st Class Carmen Muscara

In September 1966, Sgt. 1st Class Carmen Muscara reported to the 45th MI Detachment (Image Interpretation) in Saigon. Although this was his first assignment in Vietnam, in 1960-1961, he had served with the U.S. Army Signal Technical Intelligence Team #2 at Camp Zama, Japan.

There he had interpreted photos taken of Southeast Asia that identified a significant increase in North Vietnamese activity, specifically the movement of arms and supplies into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Once in Vietnam, Muscara received an assignment to Special Forces Detachment B-50 at Ban Me Thuot during which he trained reconnaissance personnel to develop and interpret their own photographs.

In the spring of 1967, Muscara volunteered for an aerial observation mission to photograph enemy installations near Cam Rahn Bay. He identified Viet Cong soldiers, a communications network, and the hidden entrances to tunnels and caves which a B-52 bombing campaign subsequently destroyed.

On April 28, Muscara volunteered for another aerial mission near Tuy Hoa where the Viet Cong had an extensive antiaircraft network and cave system. On this mission, he flew with U.S. Air Force Maj. Morrison Cotner, liaison officer to White Horse (the 28th Regiment, 9th Republic of Korea Infantry).

Shortly after takeoff, their aircraft was hit by hostile fire and crashed at sea. Rescue aircraft recovered Cotner and Muscara but both died within an hour of reaching the hospital.

Muscara, a Korean War veteran with 16 years of experience, had been instrumental in establishing the 1st MI Battalion (Aerial Reconnaissance Support) (MIBARS) aerial handheld camera program. The Muscara Compound, Headquarters of the 1st MIBARS, located near Tan Son Nhut at Saigon, was named in his honor.

Warrant Officer James Ishihara

In 1963, Warrant Officer James Ishihara was assigned to the 704th Intelligence Corps Detachment in Vietnam and was attached to the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM-162) Golden Eagles. The squadron conducted a four-month rotation in Da Nang in support of Operation SHUFLY, an aerial reconnaissance effort that also provided the South Vietnamese with greater tactical mobility, assault support, and offensive air support.

On March 10, 1963, HMM-162 attempted to rescue a pilot and observer of a downed Army Mohawk aircraft in the mountains west of Da Nang. Ishihara, a counterintelligence agent, went on the mission to secure any classified or sensitive data and equipment on board the crashed aircraft.

Due to the adverse conditions (high altitude, temperatures, and humidity) and the fact that the rescue cable was too short to reach the ground, the pilot had to fly close to the treetops to rescue the downed crew. During this effort, he exceeded the power capabilities of the H-34 helicopter and crashed. Ishihara, a graduate of the MI Service Language School at Fort Snelling and member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II, was one of two killed.

Warrant Officer Mary Bender

Mary Bender enlisted in the Women's Army Corps on May 29, 1962, as a counterintelligence agent and four years later, she accepted an appointment to warrant officer. In 1967, she volunteered for service in Vietnam -- the first of three tours. She was assigned as an intelligence agent and polygraph examiner with the 135th MI Group.

On Jan. 31, 1968, at the start of the Tet Offensive, Bender was one of only two military residents at the Meyerkord Hotel in Saigon when Viet Cong overran the hotel. After all the military police guarding the hotel on first two floors were killed, she defended the hotel from the third floor, returning fire and protecting the civilians, mostly nurses, inside. Due in part to her actions, the Viet Cong could not take the hotel or the Presidential Palace across the street.

Bender continued to serve until 1972; she involuntarily left the Army when she found out she was pregnant. The law that forced her out was dropped in 1975 and was later found unconstitutional.

Warrant Officer Paul V. Black

Warrant Officer Paul V. Black finished his first tour in Vietnam in late 1968, attended rotary wing pilot training, and then redeployed to Vietnam in 1970. During his second tour, the 22-year-old California native was the commander of an EH-1H Left Bank, one of the 1st Cavalry Division's special signals intelligence helicopters.

On March 1, 1971, Black was near the end of his second tour when he commanded an aerial reconnaissance mission near the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Intelligence indicated an enemy buildup in the area, and the job of the Left Bank crew was to locate the headquarters and control units.

The helicopter took heavy enemy fire and crashed five miles inside Cambodia, killing all on board. Within days, rescue crews recovered the remains of Black's crewmembers, Warrant Officer Robert D. Uhl, Sgt. 1st Class Gary C. David, and Spc. Frank Sablan, but could find no trace of Black. Thirty-two years later, in 2003, the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting finally identified the remains of Paul Black, and he was finally laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.