Operation Brotherhood in Kengkok

We are passing on two inquiries from former workers in Laos, regarding a reported 1972 incident at the village of Kengkok. If anyone has any information, you may e-mail the parties directly. Their contact information is included.

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The first request comes from MacAlan Thompson, who worked with the Refugee Relief Operations of USAID, supplying airdrops of food and other materials to the northern provinces. He used to visit OB Ban Houie Sai. During his last visit there five years ago, he reports that the OB Hospital still stood there, and that OB is well remembered. (NVA is North Vietnamese Army; IVS is International Voluntary Service).

Mac can be reached via e-mail at mactbkk@gmail.com

The report he is inquiring about has been floating on the Internet (It references NVA: North Vietnamese Army; and IVS: International Voluntary Service):

28 October 1972

That morning an NVA patrol of about a dozen men entered the village of Keng Kok - located about 35 miles east of the airport - and taken some prisoners.

There was a Filipino medical mission called Operation Brotherhood, s well as a Canadian Christian mission located there.

Back at Savannakhet we learned that 4 Canadians (2 women, then 2 men who'd gone looking for them) had been abducted by the NVA, and were last seen tied up and held in one of the houses.

An Air America helicopter from Savannakhet picked up 16 members from both missions in a rice field nearby.

Around noon the Lao Army attacked the village, set a few houses on fire, and the NVA escaped to the east.

A day or two later we heard that the bodies of the two men had been recovered, but there was still no account of what had happened to the women.

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The second information request comes from Judy Porter, who sends along a photo taken in 1973:




















She's wondering if anyone can identify those who are in the photo.

From her e-mail to Mekong Circle:

I was an Air America wife living in Udorn but doing free lance photography and writing articles for Asia Magazine in Hong Kong. I talked USAID into letting me photograph their entire project in Laos from North of Houi Sai to South of Pakse.

I did that in 1973 and while in Kengkok I heard about that terrible NVA attack and the loss of two women. I'm now Editor of the Air America Newsletter and one of my contributors came up with a story about being called to Kengkok in 1972 to rescue those who escaped the attack. I told him what I heard and we made inquiries and have learned much more. He's a good writer and will tie it all together. I thought those in the picture might offer even more.

If anyone has any information, Judy can be contacted at: JudyinanRV@aol.com