BORTON, ROBERT CURTIS "CURT"

Name: Robert Curtis "Curt" Borton
Rank/Branch: Gunnery Sergeant/US Marine Corps
Unit: 1st Platoon, Company K, 
3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 
1st Marine Division
Date of Birth: 24 June 1946 (Benton Harbor, MI)
Home of Record: Wenfield, Mo
Date of Loss: 28 August 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 155800N 1081500E (BT061673)
Click coordinates to view (4) maps
Status in 1973: Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel In Incident: John E. Bodenschatz, Jr.;
Robert L. Babula and Dennis R. Carter (missing)
REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS:  On 28 August 1966, Cpl. Dennis R. Carter,
squad leader; then PFC Robert L. Babula, PFC John E.
Bodenschatz, Jr. and PFC Robert C. "Curt" Borton,
riflemen; were assigned to 1st Platoon, Company K, 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. The four
Marines comprised a fire team assigned to establish an
ambush site in Hoa Hai village, Hoa Vang District,
Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. The village was
located approximately 500 meters south of the
platoon's patrol base.

The sector in which 1st platoon was operating was
densely populated and hotly contested approximately 2
miles west of the coastline, 3 miles southwest of
Marble Mountain and 4 miles south-southeast of the
southern end of the DaNang Airfield runways. It was
covered in rice fields, small marshy areas, patches of
scattered trees and villages of various sizes. It was
also laced with several primary and secondary roads
running generally north to south and foot/cart paths
running between villages in all directions.

Highway QL1, the primary road running nearly the full
length of both North and South Vietnam, was located
roughly 2 miles to the west of the ambush site. The
Song Vinh Dien River generally paralleled QL1 and to
the east of the road. Route 518 connected several of
the larger villages in the region and was located
roughly ½ mile east of the fire team's ambush site.

At 0300 hours, the four members of the fire team
departed the platoon's base camp. In addition to their
own weapons, they were armed with pyrotechnics that
were to be used as signaling devises. Their orders
were to relocate in the same general area or return to
platoon's patrol base in the event their ambush site
was compromised, and to return to base no later than
0900 hours that morning.

When the fire team failed to return by 0900 hours, an
immediate search operation was conducted of the area
in and around Hoa Hai village by Company K. From 29
through 31 August, 3rd Battalion conducted a
dovetailed search of the entire sector including all
possible routes of egress in the event the team
members had been captured. Local residents were
questioned, but no information was forthcoming about
the fate of the missing Marines.

Company K continued to ground search and on 4
September part of an American wristwatch and PFC
Bodenschatz's two dogtags were discovered in the
vicinity of BT061673. The search of the area was
intensified in and around that location. Heavy
engineer equipment was also employed in an effort to
locate graves, but no further trace of the four
Marines was found.

On 13 September, the 3rd Battalion cordoned off grid
squares BT0567, 0667, 0566 and 0666. All inhabitants
were assembled, screened and interrogated by an ARVN
interrogation team from Hoa Vang District
Headquarters. During this process, three Viet Cong
suspects were retained for further questioning. While
the ARVN team was successful in identifying VC
personnel, they were unable to learn anything about
the fate or whereabouts of Curt Borton, Robert Babula,
John Bodenschatz or Dennis Carter.

With no other leads to follow, the Marine Corps
reluctantly suspended the formal search effort. A
Board of Inquiry was convened to review all known
facts of the case. At its conclusion, the Battalion
Commander wrote in his final determination that the
four Marines were "probably captured." In spite of
this, Robert Babula, Curt Borton, John Bodenschatz and
Dennis Carter were declared Missing in Action.

During December 1966, PFC Babula's mother and sister
sent a Christmas card to the members of Company K
informing them that they had recently received new
information that Robert was a Prisoner of War.
However, they did not elaborate on who provided that
information to them.

In 1975, information was declassified and given to all
four families that indicated that since the fire
team's disappearance, Marine Corps Headquarters had
received two sighting reports documenting "three to
four Americans being displayed in villages south of
the area in which the fire team disappeared."

In April 1991 the US government released a list of
Prisoners of War and Missing in Action who were known
to be alive in enemy hands and for whom there is no
evidence that he or she died in captivity. This list,
commonly referred to today as the USG's "Last Known
Alive" list, included Robert Babula, Curt Borton, John
Bodenschatz and Dennis Carter.

If PFC Babula, PFC Borton, PFC Bodenschatz and Cpl.
Carter died in their loss incident, each man has the
right to have his remains returned to his family,
friends and country. However, if they survived, there
is a very real probability they were captured by
communist forces known to be operating in this region
and their fate, like that of other Americans who
remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, could be
quite different. Either way there is no doubt the
Vietnamese know what happened and could return them or
their remains any time they had the desire to do so.

In a strange twist, information regarding one of the
four Marines lost on 28 August 1966 came to light in
the late 1980s and early 1990s. On at least four
separate occasions Curt Borton's sister believes she
has seen him in the United States. Three of these
sightings occurred in the Northern
Virginia/Washington, DC area. The forth sighting took
place in Northern California after she moved to that
state.

The information about these sightings was aired in a
program by Unsolved Mysteries regarding the
possibility that American Prisoners of War have been
returned to the United States after Operation
Homecoming in a US government sponsored "secret
returnee" program. If this is the case, then Robert
Borton; and possibly Robert Babula, John Bodenschatz
and Dennis Carter as well; has been forced to exchange
one form or captivity in Southeast Asia for another
form here in this country.

Seemingly in response to the live sightings of Curt
Borton in the US, on 8 February 1993, the Vietnamese
returned only partial remains they stated belonged to
PFC Borton. Further, the Vietnamese made no reference
to, and returned no remains for, any of the other men
missing in this incident. The reported remains were
transported to the US Army's Central Identification
Laboratory, Hawaii (CIL-HI) for examination. On 21
April 1995, CIL-HI personnel announced the positive
identification of these remains as belonging to Curt
Borton.

The Borton family listened to and read the US
government's case that they ignore the sightings of
their son and brother, that they accept the remains as
his in spite of the fact that there was no conclusive
proof they were in fact his, and that they bury them
full military honors. The Borton family declined to do
so.

Since the end of the Vietnam War, over 21,000 reports
of American Prisoners, missing and otherwise
unaccounted for have been received by our government.
Many of these reports document LIVE American Prisoners
of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia
TODAY.

Military men in Vietnam were called upon to fight in
many dangerous circumstances, and were prepared to be
wounded, killed or captured. It probably never
occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the
country they so proudly served.