NEVILLE, WILLIAM EDWARD
Name: William Edward Neville
Rank/Branch: E6/US Air Force
Unit: 441st Bombardment Squadron
Date of Birth: 24 August 1933
Home City of Record: El Cajon CA
Date of Loss: 18 June 1965
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 173000N 1180000E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: B52
Refno: 2032
Other Personnel in Incident: James A. Marshall; James M. Gehrig Jr.; Tyrrell
G. Lowry; Robert L. Armond; Harold J. Roberts Jr.; Frank P. Watson (all
missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 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: Boeing B52 Stratofortress bombers have long been the Air Force's
most important strategic bomber. Used heavily in Vietnam, the venerable
aircraft continued its role throughout the Southeast Asia conflict and
played an important role in the Persian Gulf war two decades later.
On June 18, 1965, two B52 aircraft were performing a mission over the South
China Sea when they collided. The aircraft were approximately 250 miles
offshore at the point of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) when the accident
occurred. Apparently the crew of one of the aircraft survived or were
recovered, but the entire crew of the second remain missing.
The missing crew includes pilots Capt. Robert L. Armond and 1Lt. James A.
Marshall, and crewmembers Maj. James M. Gehrig, Capt. Tyrrell G. Lowry,
Capt. Frank P. Watson, TSgt. William E. Neville, and MSgt. Harold J. Roberts
Jr.
All the crew and passengers on board the B52 downed that day were confirmed
dead. It is unfortunate, but a cold reality of war that their remains were
not recoverable. They are listed with honor among the missing because their
remains cannot be buried with honor at home.
Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases. Some were known
captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards. Some were
in radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.
Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those
who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several
million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to
agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Detractors say it would be
far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive
home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.
Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still
alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still
classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the
secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?
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