Week of February 13, 2022

Week of February 13-19, 2022: 
Ambush in the U-Minh Forest, February 16, 1971

SUMMARY: On February 16, 1971, three U.S. Army servicemen from Advisory Team 55 were aboard a 13-foot “Boston Whaler” patrol boat, moving along a canal in the U-Minh Forest, deep in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam. Sergeant First Class Leslie L. Karnes operated the boat, which carried Team 55’s First Sergeant and the Senior Adviser for the Kien An District, Colonel Richard W. Ellison, who was inspecting the progress of construction projects along the canal. Suddenly, the men were ambushed by a small team of Viet Cong insurgents firing rifles and a B-40 rocket propelled grenade. All three were wounded in the initial attack. Karnes sustained mortal wounds, but remained conscious long enough to steer the boat to cover, giving the other two precious time to hold out until help arrived. He posthumously received the Silver Star medal.

FULL STORY: Throughout the war, Military advisers were the first American servicemen into Vietnam—as early as the 1950s—and they were some of the last to leave when Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975. These men and women worked directly alongside their South Vietnamese counterparts and performed diverse duties: everything from weapons and combat instruction to village defense and bridge construction. Yet their crucial roles have often been overlooked after the first arrival of American combat forces in March 1965.

As part of the vast advisory effort in Vietnam, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, established small teams of men to work directly with South Vietnamese local defense forces— known as Regional and Popular Forces—in the towns and villages in which they lived. These small units were called Mobile Advisory Teams (MATs), and they represented an effort to counter the Viet Cong insurgency at the most local level.

Under the direction of senior province advisers, MATs consisted of two junior officers and three or four enlisted men, usually older veterans with more experience. MATs gave advice to South Vietnamese villagers on defending their homes, taught them counterinsurgency tactics, and instructed them in the use of arms and munitions. Perhaps more importantly, in the later parts of the war as part of the attempt to win the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people, MATs coordinated resources and manpower to help villagers build infrastructure and construct homes and other buildings in the places they lived. MATs helped dig wells, improve roads and bridges, shore up eroding river and canal banks, and revitalize agricultural fields. They also acted as a general liaison between the United States military and local residents, whose cooperation MACV greatly needed to secure the countryside against Communist control. At the height of the war, there were 487 MATs serving in South Vietnam. By 1971, as the teams were being phased out as part of the broader American withdrawal from Southeast Asia, the number was reduced to just 66.

In 1971, Mobile Advisory Team 102, one of the remaining MATs, was based in the dense U-Minh Forest, a vast wetland forest of mangroves and bamboo in the western Mekong Delta. The numerous canals and streams that crisscross the U-Minh Forest flow into the extensive Mekong River estuary. Along the way they meander and intersect in complex ways. For anyone unfamiliar with the landscape, finding your way through was always difficult. Boats were all but a requirement to go very far in any direction. The forest itself could be oppressive, with dense thickets, seemingly squeezing watercourses from all sides and offering perfect hiding places for men or supplies. For all of these reasons, the U-Minh Forest was a center of activity for the Viet Cong insurgency throughout the war. The MATs who worked with the local residents—largely small-scale rice farmers and fishermen—in such isolated locations were always in danger from unseen attackers. 

On February 16, 1971, the senior U.S. adviser for the Kien An District, Colonel Richard W. Ellison, was aboard a small “Boston Whaler” patrol boat with two other men on an inspection tour, examining the progress on several fortified outposts being constructed in the U-Minh Forest. Ellison was 49 years old, from Granby, Massachusetts. He was also a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. With him, was Advisory Team 55’s First Sergeant (whose name was not mentioned in the records) and the boat operator, MAT 102’s Sergeant First Class Leslie L. Karnes, who was 33 years old from Sikeston, Missouri. When Ellison finished his inspection, the three motored back toward Kien An District Headquarters along a narrow canal when they were ambushed by a small reconnaissance team of Viet Cong fighters. The Viet Cong had no machine guns, but they did have rifles and a B-40 rocket launcher, which they fired from the underbrush. The B-40 rocket propelled grenade dealt only a glancing blow to the patrol boat, but all three were wounded either by the grenade or rifle fire. Karnes sustained the most grievous wounds. Bleeding profusely, he somehow maintained control of the boat. Karnes surely understood that their only chance of survival was to escape the open water and find cover along the shore. The other two in the boat finally managed to return fire as Karnes sped away as deftly as he could. They reached the canal bank alive and tried to scramble into some jungle foliage.

The Viet Cong attackers did not pursue them any further, likely fearful of meeting American reinforcements that were on the way. But all three advisors were stuck, wounded too severely to escape the area in their damaged boat. Karnes died of his wounds shortly after reaching the canal bank. He posthumously received the Silver Star medal for his actions maneuvering the boat to cover in spite of his painful injuries. Ellison also died of his wounds later the same day. Team 55’s First Sergeant survived, partially thanks to the bravery of Karnes and Ellison.

Ellison and Karnes are memorialized together on Panel 5W, Line 111, of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.¹ 

Like most American military forces in Southeast Asia, the Mobile Advisory Teams were not in South Vietnam much longer after early 1971. The MAT training school in Di An ceased operations in September 1971. Those American advisers who remained by 1972 were largely technical personnel, administrators, and those assigned to train South Vietnamese troops to use the more sophisticated weaponry given to them by the United States.