MY MIA....
Merlin Raye Allen
Rank/Branch: E3/USMC
Unit: A Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 22 October 1946
Home City of Record: Bayfield WI
Date of Loss: 30 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 161349N 1074301E (YC896956)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH46A
OTHER PERSONNEL IN INCIDENT: John House; Michael Judd; John Killen; Glyn Runnels (all still missing)
SOURCE: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 from one or more of the following: Raw data from U.S. Government
agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: DED/CRSH BRN/SOM RECOV/NT SUBJ
SYNOPSIS: Capt. John A. House was the pilot of an CH46A helicopter carrying personnel assigned to Company A, 3rd
Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division near the city of Phu Bai, South Vietnam on June 30, 1967.
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Petty Officer Third Class
Michael B. Judd
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Among the passengers onboard the aircraft were members of Company A, LCpl Merlin
R. Allen, LCpl. John D. Killen, and Cpl. Glyn L. Runnels. Also onboard was the company's hospital corpsman, Petty Officer Third Class Michael B. Judd.
The aircraft was hit by small arms fire, exploded and crashed. Although some of the personnel aboard survived,
House, Allen, Judd, and Killen were never found, nor were remains recovered that could be identified as theirs.
The four men were listed as killed in action, body not recovered.
Nearly 2500 Americans did not return from Southeast Asia at the end of the war. Some, like the pilot and passengers
of the CH46, are probably dead and will never come home. Since the end of the war, however, thousands of refugee
reports have been received that indicate hundreds of Americans are still alive, held captive.
It is a matter of pride in the Marine Corps that one's comrades are never left on the field of battle to fall into
the hands of |
the enemy. One can imagine that these men, had they survived, would willingly go one more mission for the return
of those who still await rescue. Although some of the personnel aboard survived, House was never found, nor were
remains recovered that could be identified as his. He was listed as killed in action, body not recovered.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside
the Beltway...
The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their
70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their
necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting
these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside...
We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine
or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and
talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia.