Oct. 30, 1963 - Three U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam are believed to have been captured by Communist guerrillas who whipped a South Vietnamese company 140 miles southwest of Saigon today. Two American officers and an enlisted medic disappeared in the skirmish, fought in a marshy area of rice paddies, canals, and palm jungle on the peninsula south of the Mekong River Delta. Vietnamese survivors said both officers were wounded early in the fight, one in the head and the other in a leg. In Washington, the Army identified the two U.S. officers and an enlisted man as missing in Vietnam. They are: Capt. Humbert Versace (top), of Baltimore; 1st Lt. James Rowe (center), of McAllen, Tex., and Sgt. Daniel Pitzer (bottom), Spring Lake, N.C. Twelve South Vietnamese were also listed as missing and probably prisoners. There were two reports from villagers in the region that three Americans had been seen walking along with their hands tied behind their backs. Both reports said there was a bandage on the head of one American. One of the three missing Americans had been scheduled to go home next Wednesday on completion of his tour of duty in Vietnam. The Red blow fell on a 120-man company forming the left flank of a 300-man task force probing the countryside northeast of the South Vietnamese base at Tan Phu. “The day ended with the enemy in command of the field,” a U.S. officer said. “He had plenty of time to get his own casualties out of the way, along with the prisoners from our side, before we could get back in.” Major General Richard Stillwell, operations officer for U.S. forces in Vietnam, said everything possible was being done to recover the Americans.
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