Name: Dennis Paul Neal
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army Special
Forces
Unit: C & C North, MACV-SOG,
5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 01 February 1944
(Quincy IL)
Home City of Record: Tarpon
Springs FL
Date of Loss: 31 July 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 162700N 1065200E
(YD003191)
Status (in 1973): Missing In
Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
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.