AHLMEYER, HEINZ JR. Remains Identified late 2004
Name: Heinz Ahlmeyer, Jr. Rank/Branch: O1/USMC Unit: H & S Co., 3rd Recon BN, 3rd Marine Division, Khe Sanh, South Vietnam Date of Birth: 06 February 1944 Home City of Record: Pearl River NY Date of Loss: 10 May 1967 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 163706N 1064404E (XD845485) Status (in 1973): Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered Category: 2 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground Refno: 0678
Other Personnel in Incident: Malcolm T. Miller; James N. Tycz; Samuel A. Sharp (all missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 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 2005.
REMARKS: KIA WHN PTRL ATKD, WNDD RCV-J
SYNOPSIS: Third Class Petty Officer Malcolm T. Miller was a hospital corpsman assigned to H & S Company at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. He was working with A Company, 3rd Marine Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division at Khe Sanh on May 9, 1967.
On that day, Miller joined a reconnaissance patrol from A Company that had the mission of gathering intelligence information on suspected enemy infiltration routes near their base. The patrol was helicopter lifted into an area just south of the DMZ, where they found signs of recent enemy activity, and moved to high ground to establish a night defensive position.
Shortly after 12 p.m. the patrol came under heavy small arms fire, and several of the team were wounded. Twelve hours later, after numerous unsuccessful attempts, a helicopter was finally able to land and retrieve the wounded. It was not possible to retrieve the bodies of those who had died, including Miller, LCpl. Samuel A. Sharp, Jr., Sgt. James N. Tycz, and 2Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer, Jr. All were said to have died during the action from wounds received from enemy small arms fire and and grenades.
The four men left behind near the DMZ were never found. The government of Vietnam has been consistently uncooperative in releasing remains they hold or in allowing access to known loss sites.
Even more tragically, evidence mounts that many Americans are still alive in Southeast Asia, still prisoners from a war many have long forgotten. It is a matter of pride in the armed forces, and especially in the Marines Corps, that one's comrades are never left behind. Many men have been killed trying to bring in a wounded or killed buddy. One can imagine the men missing from A Company, as well as Malcolm Miller, had they survived, being willing to go on one more patrol for those heroes we left behind.
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http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/010605/a0106vietvet.html
Vietnam vet's remains found
By JANE LERNER THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: January 6, 2005)
For more than three decades, Pearl River High School classmates Russ Williams and Bill Harris have worn metal bracelets engraved with the name of a buddy who disappeared in Vietnam in 1967 on the day he started his tour of duty.
Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr., a rugged, 23-year-old athlete who played football and baseball at Pearl River High School, has been presumed dead since in May 1967, when Marine Corps officers appeared on the doorsteps of his family's South Nauraushaun Road home to say he was lost in combat.
No one ever knew for sure.
Until now.
Ahlmeyer's sister, Irene Healea of Watertown, Tenn., received a telephone call Tuesday informing her that her brother's remains had been found in Vietnam and positively identified. She is his closest surviving relative.
"I couldn't even say anything," Healea said yesterday. "I knew he had been killed, but as long as he was still listed as missing in action, there was always that little bit of hope that somehow he was alive in a prison camp somewhere. Now that hope is gone."
As soon as she learned her brother's fate, she called friends in Pearl River. Word that the Rockland native's fate had finally been settled spread quickly among veterans. Ahlmeyer was one of 46 Rocklanders killed during the war.
"After almost 38 years, he's finally coming home," Williams said tearfully yesterday. "Now he can rest in peace."
Williams, who graduated with Ahlmeyer in 1961, said the news brought great relief: "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or jump in the air. I didn't think I'd ever be able to take this bracelet off."
Harris said that knowing for certain what happened to Ahlmeyer was both comforting and painful.
"When I heard the news this morning, it felt like we lost him all over again," he said.
Friends and family said Ahlmeyer was a popular and well-liked student at Pearl River High School.
"He was a happy-go-lucky guy," Williams recalled. "There was always a smile on his face and he was always willing to help people."
After graduation, Ahlmeyer went to SUNY-New Paltz, then enlisted in the Marine Corps. Healea said the college gave an award every year in her brother's honor.
Her brother had hoped to have a career in forestry or perhaps teaching, Healea said.
Ahlmeyer was on a reconnaissance patrol in the Quang Tri province on May 10, 1967, when he and three other Marines came under fire. They were presumed dead, but because of enemy fire, commanders deemed it too dangerous to retrieve the bodies, Healea said the family was told.
"It was the right decision," she said. "They didn't want any more casualties."
The family learned of his fate two days before Mother's Day. "It just about killed my parents," Healea recalled.
Another brother, Bill, was an Orangetown police officer until he died of cancer in 1986. Their father, Heinz Sr., died many years ago, but their mother, Aurelia, lived until July, clinging to hope that her son might be alive.
Military officials contacted Healea a year ago and asked her to submit blood samples for DNA testing. "I never really thought anything would come of it," she said.
It was unclear yesterday exactly when his remains were found.
Healea said she would meet with military officials next month to plan a funeral for her brother at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia during the spring.
His name is engraved on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, and a flagpole in Pearl River's Braunsdorf Park bears his name. But the family never had a final resting place for him.
Jerry Donnellan, Rockland's director of veterans affairs, said he had been in touch with Healea and planned to hold a ceremony to honor Ahlmeyer. "He'll never be forgotten," he said.
Harris said the discovery of Ahlmeyer's remains nearly 38 years after he was lost should provide hope to other families. "It's important for these kids in Iraq today to know that someone cares about them enough to keep looking," he said. "Even if it takes 40 years, we'll never leave them behind."
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Friday, February 11, 2005
Marine killed in Vietnam to finally come home SUNY to honor star student-athlete's memory By Gabriel J. Wasserman For the Poughkeepsie Journal
Courtesy photo Heinz Ahlmeyer played soccer and baseball and was on the swimming team at SUNY New Paltz. NEW PALTZ -- Nearly 40 years after he was killed on his first day of active duty, a Marine who left an enduring athletic legacy at SUNY Paltz can be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The remains of Second Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer were identified in January from a tooth filling found at the site of a 1967 skirmish in Vietnam. The platoon commander was believed dead but listed as missing until the recently unearthed tooth was compared to dental records.
''As long as you don't know for sure, you always hold out hope,'' said his sister Thursday. The military informed Irene Healea last month that her brother's remains had been positively identified.
Asked if the news has brought closure, the Tennessee resident said she was ''coming around to that.''
Ahlmeyer died in the Quang Tri province, where his long-range reconnaissance patrol was hit unexpectedly by grenades and small arms fire. Rescuers with a helicopter were unable to save him and three comrades.
Maybe ''one day my brother would come walking through that door,'' Healea said she had always figured.
Perhaps he had amnesia. ''You hold onto these things,'' she said.
Memorial trophy
The State University of New York at New Paltz held onto his spirit too. Awarded annually, the Heinz Ahlmeyer trophy honors an upper-class student's inspirational courage and dedication to team sports.
''He was just one of those guys who had to be the leader,'' said Al Miller, Ahlmeyer's soccer coach. ''He was a bull -- a brilliant competitor.''
Ahlmeyer played with a toughness and a passion that have become legendary, according to Miller, college officials and former teammates. He also played baseball and swam backstroke for SUNY New Paltz.
''He has been a symbol that I think the college will always be proud of,'' said Athletics Director Stuart Robinson, who presents the Ahlmeyer trophy at an annual banquet each year. When the award is given, Robinson added, ''You can hear a pin drop.''
The college plans to honor Ahlmeyer's memory at a special October ceremony that will include members of his 1965 soccer team.
The alumni weekend ceremony will commemorate the 40th anniversary of that team's state and Atlantic Coast regional championship victories, college spokesman Eric Gullickson said.
Assemblyman William Parment, a Chautauqua County Democrat, was the 1965 team manager and Ahlmeyer's friend.
''He was a great guy, big smile,'' Parment recalled Thursday. ''He was a weightlifter. He was in great physical condition. He had a lot of hustle. It still remains a shock, a guy who was so full of life.''
About a decade ago, Parment was asked to create a statewide day of POW-MIA recognition. He gained sponsors for a bill and spoke before the Assembly in Albany about it.
For the speech, Parment carried a list of the missing in his pocket. An advocacy group had supplied it, and Parment wanted the Assembly's official record to contain all the names.
At the time, he said, he did not know his former friend was among the missing. Ahlmeyer's name was on official memorials. Most people, including college officials, thought he was dead.
''I go to read it, and son of a gun, Heinz is the first name on the list,'' the assemblyman said. ''I got such a lump in my throat. I really couldn't talk for like a minute or more.''
Parment and Miller recalled a letter Ahlmeyer had sent from Marine Corps boot camp. Miller read it aloud to the team. In it, Ahlmeyer joked the war preparations were easier than Miller's pre-season training.
''We all had a laugh out of it,'' Miller said.
''It was pretty rigorous,'' Parment said of Miller's soccer camp. ''There was a lot of bonding.''
The identification of the remains reawakened sadness, Miller said, but ''I'm so glad he can come home.''
Richie Lotze, a member of the 1965 team, remembered welcoming Ahlmeyer to New Paltz in 1963. A native of Pearl River in Rockland County, Ahlmeyer spent a year at a community college before Miller recruited him to transfer.
''It's a pity he wasn't with us longer,'' said Lotze, a southern Dutchess County resident. ''It was like he was there and he was gone. He was well liked, well-remembered.''
Ahlmeyer's name is engraved on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, and a flagpole in Pearl River's Braunsdorf Park bears his name. The family never had a final resting place for him.
Following a series of military scheduling procedures and discussions with families of other dead soldiers found with Ahlmeyer, burial in the federal cemetery could happen this spring, Parment and Healea said.
Gabriel J. Wasserman can be reached at gwasserman@hvc.rr.com
======================== March 1, 2005 National League of Families
POW/MIAs - VIETNAM WAR: There are now 1,836 Americans listed by the Defense Department as missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War - 1,399 in Vietnam, 375 in Laos, 55 in Cambodia and 7 in PRC territorial waters. The League was informed today that the remains of four US personnel, previously listed as KIA/BNR in South Vietnam have been recovered and identified. The four Americans were all lost on May 10, 1967, and their remains were recovered May 27, 2003, though identified late last year and accepted by their families recently. Those now accounted for include 2LT Heinz Ahlmeyer, USMC, of NY; HM3 Malcolm T. Miller, USN, of FL; LCpl Samuel A. Sharp, USMC, of CA; and SGT James N. Tycz, USMC, of WI. In addition, the League recently confirmed that COL Sheldon J. Burnett, USA, from NH, and CWO (3) Randolph J. Ard, USA, both listed as MIA in Laos March 7, 1971 are now accounted for. Their remains were jointly recovered October 4, 2004, and recently identified. Still others have been ID'd, not yet announced by DPMO, perhaps due to delays in scheduling ID consultations with the primary-next-of-kin (PNOK). The reality is that PNOK no longer retain decision-making capability before official ID, but the pretense has been retained.
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Journal News March 18, 2005
Arlington burial set for Marine: Pearl River man to get honors 38 years after death in Vietnam Jane Lerner
A Pearl River man who disappeared on his first day of duty in Vietnam will be buried May 10 in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, 38 years to the day after he was killed in combat. The remains of Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr. will be escorted from a military forensics laboratory in Hawaii, where scientists positively identified them in January, said his sister, Irene Healea. "I feel great pain that my mom and dad can't be part of it," Healea, Ahlmeyer's closest surviving relative, said yesterday. "I hope that there is some way they know the honor being bestowed on their son." Ahlmeyer was a 23-year-old Marine when he was sent on a reconnaissance patrol in the Quang Tri province on May 10, 1967. He never returned. Witnesses told military officials that Ahlmeyer and three other Marines who came under enemy fire had been shot to death, his sister said. Marines came to the family's South Nauraushaun Road home to say he was lost in combat and presumed dead. Ahlmeyer's father died several years later. His mother lived until July, always hoping her son would be found. Remains near the area where the four Marines were last seen were found about six months ago, said Healea, who now lives in Watertown, Tenn. Her younger brother, whom she calls "Junior," was identified through a filling in a molar, she said. Remains of the three other Marines out on that patrol also will be buried May 10, she said. Some who knew Ahlmeyer during his days at Pearl River High School, where he played football and baseball, plan to attend the funeral in Virginia. "It brings a long chapter to a close," said Pearl River resident Bill Harris, who has worn a metal bracelet engraved with his childhood friend's name for decades. "The fact that he will get the honor that he deserves so long after he made the supreme sacrifice gives me goose bumps." Russ Williams, who graduated from Pearl River High School with Ahlmeyer in 1961, said he, too, hoped to attend the ceremony. "It's amazing," he said, "to have him come home after all these years." Williams is a member of the local chapter of 'Nam Knights of America, which plans to honor Ahlmeyer on Sept. 17, a day set aside to honor prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. The group wants to hold a ceremony at the field on Central Avenue in Pearl River, where Ahlmeyer once played football.