KENNEY, HARRY JOHN

Name: Harry John Kenney
Rank/Branch: E4/US Navy
Unit: River Assault Squadron 11
Date of Birth: 17 April 1945
Home City of Record: Cincinnati OH
Date of Loss: 01 November 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 101927N 1062229E (XS540420)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: LST 1167
Refno: 1317
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 May 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:

SYNOPSIS: Engineman Petty Officer Third Class Harry J. Kenney was assigned
to River Assault Squadron 11. On November 1, 1968, Petty Officer Kenney was
on watch in the radio room on the floating dock along side the USS
WESTCHESTER COUNTY (LST 1167).

At 0322 a large explosion occurred on the starboard side of the dock.
Immediately following the explosion, Petty Officer Kenney could not be
located. The explosion was suspected to be caused by a Viet Cong water mine,
and destroyed nearly all of the floating deck. A search was conducted
immediately, but the only trace found of Kenney was his wristwatch. Kenney
was listed Missing in Action, and a three-day search effort was conducted.
At the end of the search, Kenney was presumed to be dead.

Kenney is listed with honor among those Americans who remain missing,
prisoner or unaccounted for from the Vietnam war. 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. Distractors 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.

Over 1000 eye-witness reports of living American prisoners were received by
1989. 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?