ALLEN, MERLIN RAYE
Remains recovered June, 2012
Name: Merlin Raye Allen
Rank/Branch: E3/USMC
Unit: A Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 22 October 1946
Home City of Record: Bayfield WI
Date of Loss: 30 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 161349N 1074301E (YC896956)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH46A
Refno: 0746
Other Personnel In Incident: John House; Michael Judd; John Killen; Glyn
Runnels (all still 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. 2020
REMARKS: DED/CRSH BRN/SOM RECOV/NT SUBJ
SYNOPSIS: Capt. John A. House was the pilot of an CH46A helicopter carrying
personnel assigned to Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine
Division near the city of Phu Bai, South Vietnam on June 30, 1967.
Among the passengers onboard the aircraft were members of Company A, LCpl.
Merlin R. Allen, LCpl. John D. Killen, and Cpl. Glyn L. Runnels. Also
onboard was the company's hospital corpsman, Petty Officer Third Class
Michael B. Judd.
The aircraft was hit by small arms fire, exploded and crashed. Although some
of the personnel aboard survived, House, Allen, Judd, and Killen were never
found, nor were remains recovered that could be identified as theirs. The
four men were listed as killed in action, body not recovered.
Nearly 2500 Americans did not return from Southeast Asia at the end of the
war. Some, like the pilot and passengers of the CH46, are probably dead and
will never come home. Since the end of the war, however, thousands of
refugee reports have been received that indicate hundreds of Americans are
still alive, held captive.
It is a matter of pride in the Marine Corps that one's comrades are never
left on the field of battle to fall into the hands of the enemy. One can
imagine that these men, had they survived, would willingly go one more
mission for the return of those who still await rescue. Although some of the
personnel aboard survived, House was never found, nor were remains recovered
that could be identified as his. He was listed as killed in action, body not
recovered.
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04/08/2013
February 2013: Lance Cpl. Merlin R. Allen, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion,
3rdMarine Division, was lost on June 30, 1967, in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam.
The memorial service is
being held on June 29, 2013 and the burial will be on York Island, Bayfield,
Wisconsin. His remains were
recovered in June, 2012. POW MIA
Organization met with our
family to discuss their findings on February 16, 2013.
Sheila Allen-Kelly
|
Marine Gets Funeral 46 Years On
Jul 01, 2013
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
BAYFIELD -- Merlin Allen returned home Saturday.
Home to the bucolic place
where he grew up, played basketball, swam in Lake Superior, decided to
enlist in the Marines
and left to go to war.
For 46 years Allen has been
gone, one of many American troops missing in action from the Vietnam War. A
joint U.S.
and Vietnamese recovery team last year found remains at a
helicopter crash site in Thua Thien-Hue province that in
February were
positively identified as Allen's....
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000oW60cEAC
On February 16, 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC,
now DPAA) identified the remains of Lance Corporal Merlin Raye
Allen, missing from the Vietnam War.
Lance Corporal Allen joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Wisconsin
and was a member of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st
Marine Division. On June 30, 1967, he was a passenger aboard a
CH-46A Sea Knight (bureau number unknown) attempted to insert a
Marine reconnaissance team into the enemy-controlled territory
in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. As the Sea Knight
approached the landing zone, it was struck by enemy fire,
causing the helicopter to catch fire and crash. LCpl Allen and
four others died in the crash. In 1993 and 1994, a joint
U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam search team surveyed the Sea
Knight's crash site in Thua Thien-Hue Province but was unable to
fully identify the aircraft. A re-examination of the wreckage
associated the crash site with the Sea Knight and in 2012,
excavations at the site recovered remains from the wreckage. In
2013, modern forensic techniques individually identified LCpl
Allen's remains from among those recovered.
Lance Corporal Allen is memorialized on the Courts of the
Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.