DEXTER, BENNIE LEE
Name: Bennie Lee Dexter
Rank/Branch: E3/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 18 July 1944
Home City of Record: Bend OR
Date of Loss: 09 May 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 123433N 1075016E (XD795050)
Status (In 1973): Prisoner of War
Category: 1
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: M151 jeep
Refno: 0333
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 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: CAPTURE WITNESSED; JEEP FOUND
SYNOPSIS: On May 10, 1966, A2C Bennie Lee Dexter was captured by communist
forces while driving a jeep south on National Route 14 near the Darlac/Quang
Duc Province boder, South Vietnam. His jeep was found at this location the
next day and there was a Vietnamese witness to his capture.
Subsequent intelligence reports confirmed Dexter's capture and named the
location at which he was being held. Dexter was placed in Prisoner of War
status.
When American military involvement ended in Southeast Asia, Bennie Dexter
was not released from prison, nor did his name appear on any lists provided
by the Vietnamese. The United States government later declared him
administratively "dead" because no specific information had been received
that he was still alive.
In 1987, classified information regarding Bennie Dexter was given to the
Vietnamese by General John Vessey in hopes of resolving the mystery of his
fate. The information, which is denied to the American public, was widely
distributed by a government official who was outraged that the public and
POW/MIA families were denied information that could be given to our former
enemies.
Although the numbers of Americans that the Vietnamese have accounted for
with the return of remains increased in the late 1980's, the Vietnamese have
yet to "discover" the whereabouts of Bennie Dexter, alive or dead.
Over 10,000 reports have been received by the U.S. relating to the nearly
2500 Americans missing, prisoner or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Many
experts believe that hundreds of them are still alive in communist hands.
One of them could be A2C Bennie Dexter. It's time the brave Americans still
serving their country in Vietnam were brought home.
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