BOYER, ALAN LEE

Remains identified 03/2016

Name: Alan Lee Boyer
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army Special Forces
Unit: C & C Detachment, Drawer 22 (MACV-SOG), 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 08 March 1946 Chicago IL
Home City of Record: Missoula MT
Date of Loss: 28 March 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 164730N 1062000E (XD434574)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1108
Other Personnel In Incident: Charles Huston; George R. Brown (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 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 2020.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: 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 March 28, 1968, Sgt. Alan L. Boyer, Sgt. Charles G. Huston, both
riflemen, and SFC George R. Brown, intelligence sergeant, were conducting a
reconnaissance patrol in Laos, along with 7 Vietnamese personnel. The men
were attached to Command and Control Detachment, MACV-SOG. About 15 miles
inside Laos, northeast of Tchepone, the patrol made contact with an unknown
enemy force and requested exfiltration by helicopter.

Because of the terrain in the area, the helicopter could not land, and a
rope ladder was dropped in for the team to climb up to board the aircraft.
Six of the Vietnamese had already climbed to the aircraft, when, as the 7th
climbed aboard, the helicopter began receiving heavy automatic weapons fire.
This forced the helicopter to leave the area.

Simultaneous to these events, Sgt. Boyer began to climb the ladder when
seconds later, the ladder broke. When last seen during the extraction, the
other 2 sergeants (Huston and Brown) still on the ground were alive and
appeared unwounded. On April 1, a search team was inserted into the area and
searched 6 hours, but failed to locate any evidence of the three men.

Boyer, Huston and Brown are among the nearly 600 Americans missing in Laos.
When the war ended, agreements were signed releasing American Prisoners of
War from Vietnam. Laos was not part of the peace agreement, and although the
Pathet Lao stated publicly that they held "tens of tens" of prisoners, not a
single American held in Laos has ever been released.

Any of the three members of the reconnaissance team operating that day in
March 1968 could be among the hundreds of Americans experts believe to be
alive today. The last they saw of America, it was flying away, abandoning
them to the jungle and the enemy. What must they be thinking of us now?

===========================================================
Senate Select Committee Hearing Text:

Laos                    Charles G. Huston
                        George R. Brown
                                                 Alan L. Boyer

(1108)

On March 28, 1968, Sergeants Huston, Brown and Boyer were leading
Team Asp, a covert cross border reconnaissance patrol operating
from Forward Base (FOB) 4, an element of the 5th Special Forces
Group Command and Control Detachment based in South Vietnam.  They
were on a mission in an area twenty kilometers northeast of the
town of Tchepone, Savannakhet Province, Laos, when they came under
heavy enemy fire and called for an extraction.  The helicopter
withdrew under heavy fire and was unable to recover Sergeants Brown
and Huston.  Sergeant Boyer was the last recovered and while
holding onto a rope ladder and it together with its mount broke
away from the recovery helicopter and he fell to the ground.

A ground search of the area on April 1, 1968, failed to show any
sign of the three missing patrol members.  They were declared
missing at a classified location which was later acknowledged to be
Laos.  None of these individuals was reported alive in the northern
Vietnamese prison system and none of their remains has been
repatriated.  All three were initially reported missing and later
declared dead/body not recovered.

In August 1984 a Lao refugee reported three Americans were killed
in a People's Army of Vietnam ambush in the area of Team Asp's
engagement.  The bodies were reportedly buried in the area.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2001:
Anyone with information about the circumstances of the death of SGT Alan L.
Boyer (KIA 28 Mar 1968) (RT -11)
Please contact his sister Judi (Boyer) Bouchard    Judivirginia@hotmail.com.
She has been to Laos and talked wilth some DOD folks, would like to contact
anyone that knew Alan.  (434 589 2735).
His mother is still alive and would like info.
SOAKVA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: RHall8715@aol.com
Date: Sunday, November 02, 2003 1:59:08 PM
To: tfoinc@direcway.com
Subject: Live POW text file

POWs IN LAOS: SOME STILL SURVIVE
HELP BRING THEM HOME

There were 480 POW/MIAs lost in Laos. Colonel David Hrdlicka is one of over
60 known American Servicemen captured in Laos during the Vietnam War that
were never negotiated for. American Prisoners of War (POWs) have since been
reported alive in Laos for over three decades. Through thirty years of
covert actions, political miscalculations, self-serving careerism, and
cover-ups the US Government has been ineffective in bringing about their
release. At the end of the Vietnam War the US government informed America
that the Vietnamese would be responsible for all POW/MIAs including those in
Laos and Cambodia. That was not true.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Declassified transcripts of the Paris Peace Accords "Secret Negotiation"
reveal that the Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho would not take
responsibility for POWs other than those held by the Vietnamese. He insisted
that Laos was a sovereign country and that the US must negotiate with the
Pathet Lao [Laotian communists] for the POWs they held. Henry Kissinger told
Le Duc Tho that if the Vietnamese would neither object -- nor accept
responsibility for all POWs publicly when he [Kissinger] said they would be
responsible for all POWs in Indochina. -- that the US would not hold the
Vietnamese to it. Laos was not part of the Paris Peace Accords; we never
negotiated for POWs in Laos.

In January 1973 the US agreed to pay the Vietnamese $4.25 billion in
reconstruction aid for the list of POWs in Laos. The Department of Defense
(DOD) negotiators received the names of only 10 POWs captured in Laos by the
Vietnamese. When the 591 POWs released from Vietnam returned and informed
the Congress how they were tortured and some killed the Congress refused to
authorize payment of reconstruction Aid.  This confounded the problem of
unreturned POWs from Laos.

In an interview with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral
Tom Moorer (1995)
he stated there was a rescue planned for 60 POWs known captive in Laos at
the end of 1972.  The rescue was canceled because of the Paris Peace
Agreement. When questioned why the POWs were not rescued after the
Vietnamese gave back their last returned POWs on March 28th 1973, Admiral
Moorer maintains that there was no current intelligence at that time on
which to the launch rescues. They could not be sure the POWs were still at
the last known locations and would not risk a rescue. Following are some of
these POW/MIAs that have been sighted in recent years, there are others.

SOME STILL SURVIVE
POW/MIA Colonel David Louis Hrdlicka (USAF), an F-105 pilot, was born in
Minnesota and shot down in Laos. He was photographed in captivity and
reported alive in the Russian Newspaper Pravda during the war.  There have
been numerous reported live sightings of David Hrdlicka throughout the 1980s
and 1990s. His wife Carol who now lives in Kansas still seeks his return
through the Defense POW Office (DPMO) and would like the Congress to use
their legislative powers to require government to get him out before he dies
in Laos and the government settles for his bones. She states they have done
nothing constructive to locate him.

Colonel Frank Gould a navigator aboard a B-52 from the Bronx NY parachuted
over Laos with the rest of his crew after being hit during a bombing run
over Hanoi.  He was the last man on the ground, the helicopter rescued the
other crewmen. Gunfire at the helicopter and nightfall prevented his
recovery. The following day rescuers could not locate him. Reports that
Frank was alive and wanted to come home have come out throughout the 1990's.
His wife Marie resides in California and would like to know why Congress is
not exercising their oversight ability to assure the Department of Defense
gets him home.

CWO William Milliner, from Kentucky, was flying a Cobra helicopter Gun Ship
over Laos in March 1971 when he was last heard from. A businessman in
Thailand with contacts inside Laos gave information to US officials (1989)
that "Milliner" is alive and can be brought to the Thai border. When the
Laotians requested a reward they were turned away. His father Joe a returned
WWII POW and his mother Mary travel to Washington annually trying to get the
government to bring him home. Their plea's bring no response.

Army Special Forces Sgt. Charles Huston from Ohio was on a reconnaissance
mission in Laos in 1968. He was left on the ground along with Sgt. George
Brown, and Sgt. Alan Boyer when their extraction helicopter came under fire
and had to leave. In 1989, an oriental prisoner captured by the Vietnamese
in Laos escaped and made his way to Thailand where he was interviewed by US
officials. He stated that he spoke with UY-STON [Charles Huston] who told
him if he ever got free to let the world know "that my name is Huston, and
there are other American's held with me." His brothers John and Robert
strive to have the DOD get him out.

The Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) has historically excluded the living
unreturned POW/MIAs from constructive consideration. They either refuse to
negotiate for those known to have survived, or they are completely
ineffectual in doing so. The DPMO was in Southeast Asia on October 23rd  and
24th, 2003 to negotiate with the Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Laotians on
POW/MIA matters because these countries want improved trade relations.
Individual cases, where live POW information exists was not discussed.
Hundreds of classified documents on live POWs are still denied the public.
The field investigators that implement POW policy don't have negotiating
authority, access to senior Communist officials, or knowledge of all
classified material.

WHY ACT NOW
The Laotians want improved trade relations. We previously normalized trade
relations with Vietnam and a road map for an accounting of POWs known alive
in communist hands at the end of the war is still not productive. It is
ineffective and individual live sighting cases are ignored at the Defense
POW office. The DPMO does negotiate for remains from battle and crash sites,
a worthy effort in itself, but DOD always drops the live POW matter and
compromises on live POWs. The DOD repeatedly falls for the communist
"remains" tactics and has not made any headway on the POWs last known or
reported alive. It is easier and less embarrassing to discuss dead bodies,
rather that discuss who may still be alive. The DOD is not performing due
diligence in accounting for live POW/MIAs; and Congress is not using their
oversight authority.

The policy makers are satisfied with the quick fix accounting acceptance for
remains. An accounting that does not seek out unreturned survivors distorts
the truth. The POW/MIA families want action taken for recovery and POWs
returned home. Do not let negotiator's come up with another road map that
does not assure the return of our live American servicemen left and still
alive in Southeast Asia.

YOU CAN HELP BRING THESE MEN BACK
Contact your Senators; the Senate Intelligence Committee, Armed Services
Committee, and Foreign Relations Committee need to initiate legislation to
require live POW negotiations. The Congress must then exercise oversight
authority assuring qualified negotiators secure release and return of
surviving POWs. Let the Laotians return POWs and join in improved trade
relations.

What to do
Send letters to: The Whitehouse, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Washington, DC; your
Senators, the Chairman and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee. There is
already a reaction from the Department of Defense to the Senate. Be part of
the solution in bringing surviving POWs home from the Vietnam War. Make it
happen.Contact Roger Hall, 301/587-5055, 301/585-3361, rhall8715@aol.com.
For additional Senate contact and Donation information: www.powfoia.org.