Vietnam War Era
and so good.” Fred Ransbottom had graduated
from Putnam City High School in 1965 and had just fi nished his
situation that requires me to take another man’s life.”
These words, “Coming home,” are bittersweet
for Laverne Ransbottom, mother of 1st Lt. Fredrick Joel Ransbottom.
Although that would not be the case. On May 12, that Mother’s Day in 1968, when the three mountains in Kham Duc were under heavy fi re, one of which was Outpost 2, the last transmission made by one of the two radio men, Maurice Moore or Skip Skivington, was that Lt. Ransbottom was going from man to man giving encouragement and aiding the
wounded.
fi rst year of college at Oklahoma Baptist University,
where he was majoring in hospital administration. He and his friend from high school, Clint Wheeler, both decided to join up. “Fred had such a tender heart, he couldn’t bear to see anything suff er,” Laverne said.
But most of all, Fred Ransbottom was a leader. One of the men who served under him told Laverne Ransbottom at a meeting with the survivors of his group that Fred was the one they trusted to follow. According to Mrs. Ransbottom, “He said, ‘Fred didn’t tell us to do something, he was always there right on the front. He led us, even when he didn’t have to be the fi rst one out.’”
The medic in his unit also had high praise for Ransbottom.
“I’m going to use a term that today is very much overused,” said Allen “Doc” Hoe of Honolulu. “Lt. Fred Ransbottom was ‘awesome.’ He was a soldier’s soldier ... a breath of fresh air. We were all very young and he cared about us, and he showed it.” In a letter Fred Ransbottom had written to Ira Waters, the pastor of Cherokee Hills Baptist Church, which was his home church in Oklahoma City, he said, “I wish I knew if God will hold me responsible for taking another man’s life in a time of war. I hope I will not be faced with a
The last words radioed a few minutes later by Ransbottom were, “We’re shooting them as they come through the d----.”
A MIDNIGHT PHONE CALL Midnight last March, Donny Ransbottom, who is Fred’s youngest brother, and his family were awakened by the ringing of the telephone. Donny and his wife immediately went to his mother’s house to deliver the message. “On the other end was a casualty
offi cer from Honolulu who began reading a report telling Donny that a man by the name of Brad Strum was to be the lead anthropologist on a dig that was to be centered on the mountain at Kham Duc where Freddy was thought to be,” Laverne Ransbottom said. The anthropologist believed
offi cials had been digging in the wrong spot on previous excavations and that they had not gone deeply enough to fi nd the remains. “He believed that the air strikes
Each person deals with loss in their own private way. For Fred’s father it eventually meant accepting that Ransbottom did not survive that day’s battle. For his mother it was dealing with his loss one day at a time, not wanting to accept that he was gone, but not wanting any harm to come to him as a prisoner of war either.
that covered the outpost in the end moments of the battle at Kham Duc pushed the ground up and over the remains of the men,” she said. “The area he was referring to was the size of a football fi eld. Brad felt that after they cut away the trees and brush, that they would have to dig at least 6 feet down in order to fi nd the remains of our boys.” The excavation was authorized and the group of men left for Kham Duc and what was to be the last dig looking for remains of Outpost 2. The team returned JULY 30 to Honolulu with what are believed to be the remains of now Major Frederick Joel Ransbottom and Skip Skivington. Ransbottom’s name had been placed on a prisoner of war list for 11 years so he attained the rank of major before being reclassifi ed once again as MIA. WAITING FOR FREDDY JOE With more than 35 trips to
Washington, D.C., during the past 38 years as well as trips to Honolulu, this was one trip Laverne
Ransbottom was determined to make.
“My (youngest) son, Donny, and I went to Honolulu to meet with the men who brought back what I believe to be Freddy’s remains. My middle son, Larry, was unable to make the trip.”
In a special service, the two young men’s remains were repatriated.
VETERAN FAMILY NETWORK h AUGUST 2011 19
Photo by Drew Harmon with permission from T e Edmond Sun
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