BURNS, MICHAEL PAUL

Name: Michael Paul Burns
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army Special Forces
Unit: C & C North, MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 25 April 1947 (Oconto Falls WI)
Home City of Record: El Paso TX
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
Refno: 1473
Other Personnel In Incident: Dennis P. Neal (missing)

REMARKS:

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 1998.

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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