May 31, 1963 - Communist Viet Cong guerrillas were apparently gunning specifically for Americans when they ambushed a government patrol in the central highlands of South Vietnam Wednesday, U.S. military authorities said today. Two U.S. Special Forces advisers who led the patrol of 100 mountain tribesmen were the only ones killed. They were Captain James Brodt, 30, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., and Private Neil K. MacIver (pictured), 19, of Silver Spring, Md. “The advisers were much bigger physically than the other patrol members, and it would have been easy for the Communists to pick them out,” one military source said. “After they got the Americans, the guerrillas left in a hurry.” An autopsy showed that one of the Americans was struck by a bullet in the chest, the other in the cheek. An investigation was conducted because some tribesmen recruited by U.S. Special Forces personnel for earlier missions turned out to be Viet Cong agents.
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