THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Sgt Clarence McNeill, Thank you for your service with the 699th Security Squadron. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. This Friday is the anniversary of the terror attacks. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

I was a small boy of 8 or 9 years old playing on the Warsaw Lions Little League Team when I met Boone. He helped coach our team one summer. You occasionally meet people in life that make a lasting impression. It was that way with Boone. I remember him as a genuinely good person. He was in High School. There were other things he could have done that summer but he chose to help us. It was a real shock when I heard what happened to him. I can only tell you he is not forgotten.

Sgt. Clarence L. ‘Boone’ McNeill was killed in action on 5 February 1969, when the EC-47 aircraft tail number 45-1133, call-sign CAP 72, on which he was serving as an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist, was downed by enemy fire over Laos.

Sgt. McNeill was born on 30 June 1947 in Wayne County, North Carolina and graduated from James Kenan High School, Warsaw, North Carolina in 1965. After high school, Sgt McNeill attended East Carolina University until he joined the Air Force.

Sgt McNeill enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on 27 June 1966. He completed basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas and Vietnamese language training at the Defense Language Institute, California and technical training at Goodfellow AFB, Texas. Following completion of training in January 1968, he was assigned to the 6990th Security Group, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. On 29 May 1968, Sgt McNeill was reassigned to Det 2, 6994th Security Squadron, Pleiku Air Base, Vietnam.

Sgt McNeill was posthumously promoted to the grade of Sergeant on 1 June 1969. His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart (Posthumously), Air Medal (3rd OLC), Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal.

On 11 November 1987, the 301st Security Squadron at Misawa Air Base renamed its auditorium the “ McNeill Memorial Auditorium” in his memory.

In 2004, an enlisted housing dormitory on Ft. Meade, Maryland was renamed McNeill Hall in his honor.

SGT McNeill was initially interred in a communal grave at section 81, site 347, Jefferson Barracks Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri. However, through advanced DNA testing his remains were identified and on 28 November 2014, he was finally laid to rest in his family plot at the Devotional Gardens Cemetery, Warsaw, NC. His name is engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Panel 33W, line 66.

Clarence has now been buried next to his parents at Devotional Gardens Cemetery in Warsaw,NC.

The Douglas C-47 was designed as a transport, gunship, and electronic or regular reconnaissance aircraft, depending on the configuration. The aircraft served in World War II and served French forces in Indochina in the 1950's, and returned to Vietnam at the outset of American involvement there. On February 5, 1969, an EC-47 (electronic surveillance) departed Pleiku Airbase, Republic of Vietnam on a tactical reconnaissance mission over Laos. The aircraft crew included LTC Harry T. Niggle, CAPT Walter F. Burke, MAJ Robert E. Olson, MAJ Homer M. Lynn Jr., MSGT Wilton N. Hatton, SSGT Rodney H. Gott, TSGT Louis J. Clever, SSGT James V. Dorsey Jr., SSGT Hugh L. Sherburn (radio operator on the aircraft), and SGT Clarence L. McNeill. The last radio contact with the aircraft was at 8:10 AM at which time it was located about 21 miles west-northwest of the city of Chavane in Saravane Province, Laos. When the aircraft failed to make a scheduled stop at Phu Bai Airport near Hue shortly before noon, search efforts were initiated to locate the aircraft. During the remainder of the day and for six succeeding days, extensive communication and ramp checks were made, as well as a visual search of the area from the last known position of the aircraft through its intended flight path. Because no information was forthcoming which would reveal the whereabouts of the missing aircraft and crew, the search was then terminated. In the fall of 1969, the wreckage of an EC-47 was located in a jungle-covered mountainous area in the approximate last known location of Sherburn's aircraft. The wreckage site was searched, and remains and a number of items were recovered. These items were later correlated to Sherburn's aircraft. The Department of the Air Force believes that the aircraft was faced with a sudden airborne emergency since the right wing of the aircraft was found some 500 meters from the main wreckage site. It was believed that the engine caught fire causing the wing to separate from the fuselage while the aircraft was still in the air. Further, the Air Force states that although the crew members had parachutes, it is unlikely that the apparent suddenness of the emergency would have permitted anyone to abandon the aircraft. The absence of emergency radio signals further diminished the hope that any of the crew members could have survived. At this time, the Air Force declared the ten men onboard the aircraft to be dead, and so notified the families. The remains found at the crash site were interred in a single grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. Military officials told eight of the families that the remains of only two individuals had been identified, but would not reveal those identities to them. (It is assumed that the families of the two individuals identified were informed.) In February 1970, the Sherburn family was informed that the remains found at the crash site were skeletal and commingled and that Air Force identification specialists were unable to determine that they had a composite of ten individuals -- and were unable to establish the identity of any of the remains. [Narrative taken from pownetwork.org; image from wikipedia.org]