DENNIS PAUL NEAL
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army Special Forces
Unit: C & C North, MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 01 February 1944 (Quincy IL)
Home City of Record: Tarpon Springs FL
Date of Loss: 31 July 1969
Loss Coordinates: 162700N 1065200E (YD003191)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno:
Source: Compiled from one or more of the following:
raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK
in 1998.
Other Personnel In Incident: Michael P. Burns
(missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: In Vietnam, SP4 Michael P. Burns and
Capt. Dennis P. Neal were assigned through the 5th
Special Forces to MACV-SOG (Military Assistance
Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group).
MACV-SOG was a joint service high command
unconventional warfare task force engaged in
highly classified operations throughout Southeast
Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel
into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special
Forces group) through Special Operations
Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover"
while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams
performed deep penetration missions of strategic
reconnaissance and interdiction which were called,
depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "
Prairie Fire" missions.
On July 31, 1969, Capt. Neal was the team leader
on a reconnaissance mission with a six-man patrol
just inside Laos due west of the South Vietnam
city of Hue. The team had completed its mission
and were awaiting extraction along with 4
indigenous team members. It was at this time that
one of the indigenous opened fire on 5 enemy
personnel trying to crawl up to their position.
The enemy signalled and the result was heavy
enemy fire, including B40 rocket and machine gun
fire. A B40 rocket hit their position, killing
Capt. Neal and SP4 Burns and two of the four
indigenous. The other two indigenous team members
were slightly wounded. Neal had been wounded in
the chest.
Burns was also severely wounded in the head by the
same B-40 rocket blast, and was last seen lying on
his back, possibly dead, by Pan and Comen, the
surviving commandos.
When Pan and Comen turned Neal over to take off
one of his emergency UHF radios prior to
retreating because of wounds and intense fire,
forward air control aircraft heard an emergency
radio transmit, "Help, help, help, for God's sake,
help."
The two commandos were ultimately extracted, and
search teams were later dispatched to the area,
but no trace was found of Neal and Burns. When
all details were compared, both from the surviving
commandos and the FAC aircraft, it could not be
determined that Burns and Neal had, in fact, died.
The two were classfied Missing In Action.
For every insertion like Neal and Burns' that
were detected and stopped, dozens of other
commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to
strike a wide range of targets and collect vital
information. The number of MACV-SOG missions
conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams
into Laos and Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the
most sustained American campaign of raiding,
sabotage and intelligence-gathering waged on
foreign soil in U.S. military history. MACV-SOG's
teams earned a global reputation as one of the
most combat effective deep-penetration forces ever
raised.
The missions Neal, Burns and others were assigned
were exceedingly dangerous and of strategic
importance. The men who were put into such
situations knew the chances of their recovery if
captured was slim to none. They quite naturally
assumed that their freedom would come by the end
of the war. For 591 Americans, freedom did come
at the end of the war. For another 2500, however,
freedom has never come.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports
relating to missing Americans in Southeast Asia
have been received by the U.S., convincing many
authorities that hundreds remain alive in
captivity. Neal and Burns could be among them.
If so, what must they think of us?
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