Name: Leland Stanford McCants III
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: Battery B, 3rd Btn, 34th Artillery
9th Infantry Division
Date of Birth: 31 October 1948
Home City of Record: Alexandria VA
Date of Loss: 30 December 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 100531N 1062149E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Boat
Other Personnel
In Incident:
(none missing)
REMARKS:
DROWNED IN RIVER CROSSING
SYNOPSIS:
On December 30, 1968 1Lt. Leland McCants of Battery B, 3rd
Battalion, 34th Artillery, 9th Infantry Division, was an artillery forward
observer with an infantry company from the same division.
During the unit's patrol in Kien Hoa Province, South Vietnam, a river crossing was required, and during the crossing operation, one of the men fell into the river. McCants, in an effort to rescue the man, went after him and subsequently drowned. There is no further information on the first man.
Two rifle companies made intensive ground searches and there were searches by helicopter along the stream, including the Rach An Binh and Naga Tu Kinh rivers, but all efforts failed to find McCants or his body. Villagers were questioned, but no further information was learned.
Leland McCants is listed with honor among the missing because no remains were found. His case seems quite clear. For others who are listed missing, resolution is not as simple. Many were known to have survived their loss incident. Quite a few were in radio contact with search teams and describing an advancing enemy. Some were photographed or recorded in captivity. Others simply vanished without a trace.
Nearly 2500 Americans remain missing or otherwise unaccounted for in Vietnam. Since the war ended, over 6000 reports concerning Americans still alive in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Many experts are completely convinced that hundreds of Americans are now held captive.
One set of critics say that the U.S. has done little to address the issue of live POWs, preferring the politically safer issue of remains return. Others place the blame on the Vietnamese, for using the issue of POW/MIA to their political advantage. Regardless of blame, no living American has returned through the efforts of negotiations between the countries, and the reports continue to pour in. Are we doing enough to bring these men home?
