William Forbes “Ike” Eisenbraun; the story of a Vietnam POW

Someone sent us a link to a fairly long article in the Orange County Weekly about Captain William Forbes “Ike” Eisenbraun, a special forces officer in Vietnam before President Johnson sent combat forces to that country. Eisenbraun was captured by the North Vietnamese Army just weeks before it became an official war. He earned a Bronze Star leading the South Vietnamese Army unit the day before he was captured when the SVA units completely collapsed.

Eisenbraun was held in a prison camp with other U.S. prisoners. Various POW memoirs and interviews published in the past 30 years attest to Eisenbraun’s leadership even in captivity. His knowledge of Vietnamese helped them resist their captors. Using his Special Forces training, he taught his fellow prisoners which insects they could eat to augment their limited rations. To lighten the mood, Eisenbraun joked about writing a cookbook after the war, titling it 100 Ways to Cook a Rat.

But captivity took a toll on him. The VC took his glasses, forcing him to squint at all times. Wracked by malnutrition and dysentery, Eisenbraun eventually relied on a cane to move around. And the American government seemingly forgot him and his fellow soldiers.

At one point in 1967, a VC defector gave the Army the location where Eisenbraun was being held, but of course, the Army backed off from rescuing him.

Eisenbraun made an unsuccessful escape attempt in August 1967 with Edwin Russell Grissett Jr., a Marine from Texas who had been captured a year earlier. The VC punished the two, beating Eisenbraun unmercifully. Based on accounts from other U.S. prisoners, Task Force Omega reported that Eisenbraun was beaten in part “as an example to the other POWs of what would happen to them should they be foolish enough to try to escape themselves.” While recovering from the beating, one fellow POW said Eisenbraun fell from his hammock onto a pile of logs, breaking his ribs and puncturing a lung. After complaining of severe pain for about a week, Grissett found him dead in his hammock at 1 a.m.

Gary Garwood, the fellow who was convicted of “knowingly communicating and holding intercourse with the enemy” by the Army in 1979 claims that he buried Eisenbraun. His remains haven’t been recovered yet even though the folks that do that have been trying to find him.

But you should read the whole story at the link above.

Category: Real Soldiers