Bio, Tycz, James N.

Name: James Neil Tycz
Rank/Branch: E5/USMC
Unit: A Co., 3rd Recon BN, 3rd Marine Division, Khe Sanh, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 10 April 1945
Home City of Record: Milwaukee WI
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: 0676

Other Personnel in Incident: Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr.; Samuel A. Sharp; Malcolm T.
Miller (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 2020.

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.

Marine who died a hero heads home After 38 years, remains of sergeant killed
in Vietnam positively ID'd
PAUL MEYER

PLANO - James Neil Tycz died a hero May 10, 1967, when a hand grenade
exploded near his face in Khe Sanh, Vietnam. Of his seven-member
reconnaissance patrol team, only three Marines survived the early-morning
firefight with the North Vietnamese army, according to military records. The
others were buried under elephant grass on Hill 665, unrecovered but not
forgotten......

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.

SGT JAMES NEIL TYCZ

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Conflict
Service
Status
Date of Accounting

VIETNAM WAR
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
Accounted For
11/22/2004

On November 24, 2004, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant James Neil Tycz, missing from the Vietnam War.

Sergeant Tycz, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Wisconsin, was a member of Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. On May 10, 1967, he was on a reconnaissance patrol operating near the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. During the patrol, the unit's defensive position came under attack and Sgt Tycz was killed in the ensuing firefight. Efforts to recover the remains of Sgt Tycz following the attack were unsuccessful. In 2003, a joint U.S./Vietnamese investigative team located the site of the attack and recovered remains which were later identified as those of Sgt Tycz.

Sergeant Tycz is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.

Sgt JAMES NEIL TYCZ

Unit
Historical Country of Loss
South Vietnam
Current Country of Loss
VIETNAM
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