OUR ADOPTED POW/MIA'S

IN HONOR OF SSGT. RONALD EARL RAY WHO HAS BEEN MISSING SINCE NOVEMBER OF 1969 AND 1LT. DEAN WESLEY REITER MISSING SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 1966. THEY HAVE NOT YET RETURNED! WE MUST KEEP UP THE FIGHT TO BRING THEM HOME!

MANY SAY WE SHOULD GIVE UP THE FIGHT AND LET GO OF THE PAST. WELL, TO THOSE WHO THINK THIS WAY, WE SAY "NO!!". WE WILL NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT TILL ALL ARE ACCOUNTED FOR AND BROUGHT HOME.

THOSE WHO SAY GIVE UP EVIDENTLY DO NOT KNOW THE AGONY OF THE UNKNOWN. WE DO NOT KNOW IF SSGT. RAY IS ALIVE OR DEAD NOR IF 1LT. REITER IS ALIVE OR DEAD - WE ONLY KNOW THEY ARE MISSING. THE FAMILIES OF THE MISSING WILL NOT REST TILL THEIR LOVED ONES ARE ACCOUNTED FOR AND BROUGHT BACK HOME.

PLEASE JOIN IN THE FIGHT TODAY BY CONTACTING YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES FOR AN ANSWER AS TO WHY SSGT. RAY AND 1LT. REITER AND ALL THE OTHERS HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED.

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT THE WHITE HOUSE

Name: Ronald Earl Ray

Rank/Branch: E6/US Army Special Forces

Unit: CCN - MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces Group

Date of Birth: 11 August 1947

Home City of Record: Port Arthur TX

Date of Loss: 13 November 1969

Country of Loss: Laos

Loss Coordinates: 155813N 1070227E (YC184666)

Status (in 1973): Missing In Action

Category: 2

Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Other Personnel in Incident: Randolph B. Suber (missing)

SYNOPSIS: SSgt. Ronald E. Ray was a platoon leader and Sgt. Randolph B. Suber a riflemen and a team member of a six-man reconnaissance team on a mission in Laos. Both were assigned to Command and Control North, 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 November 13, 1969, Ray and Suber and their team were on a reconnaissance mission about 15 miles inside Laos in Saravane Province when they were attacked by a numerically superior enemy force at 1600 hours.

In the intial fire, 3 indigenous were killed, and Ray sustained chest and arm wounds and fell to the ground, groaned and became silent. One indigenous team member, Nguyen Van Bon, checked Ray and shook him but obtained no response. Ray's weapon was smashed.

Bon stated that he last saw Suber trying to gain contact on his URC-10 emergency radio, then pick up his weapon and aim at four approaching hostile soldiers, but that the rifle did not fire becasue it became jammed, and that Suber was hit immediately afterwards and fell to the ground. Bon called to him, but he did not move or answer. Their position was overrun by enemy forces and Bon evaded capture and was ultimately rescued.

Even though the report given by the indigenous may lead one to assume Ray and Suber are dead, the Army classified them as Missing In Action. There are a number of reasons to support this determination, including mistrust of indigenous reports. If Ray and Suber had merely been incapacitated, many Army personnel would say that the indigenous would look to his own safety first, disregarding the fate of the wounded Americans. As a general trend, the Army did not accept indigenous reports that were in conflict with or unsubstantiated by other information. Another factor, of course, could be that the Army knew that they were not dead. It is not uncommon for details of loss incidents in Laos to be obscure. It is even more common for details of MACV-SOG operations to be sketchy.

For every insertion like Ray and Suber's 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 Ray and Suber 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. Ray was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam.

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. Ray and Suber could be among them. If so, what must they think of us?

We 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.

REITER, DEAN WESLEY

Name: Dean Wesley Reiter
Rank/Branch: O2/US Marine Corps
Unit: Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161, Marine Air Group 16, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing
Date of Birth: 10 October 1942
Home City of Record: Manchester MO
Date of Loss: 25 September 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164656N 1065421E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH34D
Refno: 0472
Other Personnel In Incident: Peter R. Bossman; Phillip A. Ducat (both 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. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Capt. Phillip A. Ducat was a helicopter pilot assigned to HHM 161, Marine Air Group 16. On Sepember 26, 1966, Ducat was assigned a medical evacuation mission in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. His co-pilot was 1Lt. Dean W. Reiter of the same Marine helicopter company and Hospital Corpsman Third Class Peter Robert Bossman, a U.S. Navy Corpsman. (NOTE: According to Navy records, Bossman was assigned to HHM 161, MAG 16.)
When the helicopter was approximately 22 miles west of Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, the aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire, burst into flames and exploded prior to impact with the ground. The crew aboard was killed, and the intense fire of the crash consumed all remains.
The crew of the UH34 was was listed as killed, body not recovered. They are among over 2300 Americans who remain prisoner, missing or otherwise unaccounted for from the Vietnam war. The cases of some, like Bossman, Ducat and Reiter, seem clear - that they perished and cannot be recovered. Unfortunately, many other cases are clouded with doubt. Some were known to be in enemy hands. Others described their imminent capture by radio. Others simply disappeared.
Since American involvement in Vietnam ended in 1975, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing, prisoner, or otherwise unaccounted for in Indochina have been received by the U.S. Government. Many officials, having examined this largely classified information, have reluctantly concluded that many Americans are still alive today, held captive by our long-ago enemy.
In our haste to leave an unpopular war, it now appears we abandoned some of our best men. In our haste to heal the wounds of this same war, will we sign their death warrants? Or will we do what we can to bring them home?

This POW/MIA Ring site is owned by Matt & Patty Dillion Site ID#425 [ Next | Previous | Skip | Random Site ] [ List Sites | Stats | Chat/MessageBoard | Join ] Proud Member of the POW/MIA Freedom Fighters. Get a POW/MIA Honor Page of your own.

This site is owned by Matt & Patty Dillion [Next] [Previous] [Random] [List] [Info] [Join]

The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page
How to add this link to your homepage

This page is hosted by Get Your OwnFree Home Page