PREVEDEL, CHARLES FRANCIS

Remains identified 2011

Name: Charles Francis Prevedel
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Recon Team 5, Detachment B-52 DELTA, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 18 November 1943 (St.Louis MO)
Home City of Record: Florissant MO
Date of Loss: 17 April 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 160126N 1073546E (YC778732)
Status (In 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1428

Source: Compiled 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 in 2011.

Other Personnel In Incident: Charles V. Newton; Douglas E. Dahill; three
South Vietnamese Special Forces personnel

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: SSgt. Charles V. Newton, Sgt. Charles F. Prevedel, SP4 Douglas E.
Dahill and 3 unidentified Vietnamese were inserted into Quang Nam Province
in South Vietnam as part of Detachment B52 Delta's Reconnaissance Team 6 on
April 14, 1969.

On April 16, the team reported making contact with the enemy, but radioed
that it was continuing the patrol.

On April 17, the team made its scheduled morning radio contact and reported
the team's position. At 206 hours, the team reported to Control and Command
that they were in a stream bed and had been hit hard, and requested air
strikes. Their location was then in Thua Thien Province, 9 miles from Laos.
A Forward Air Controller (FAC) sent into the area was unable to make radio
contact with the team. At 1400 hours, thunderstorms in the area prevented
the insertion of a relief force.

The next day, a BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment) team was inserted to search for
Team 6. They encountered Viet Cong personnel wearing tiger striped fatigues
and bearing rifles and grenades of the type used by Team 6. A thorough
search of the stream bed and surrounding area yielded no trace of Team 6.
Numerous air and ground searches of Team 6 evasion route were conducted with
no positive result.

A Viet Cong reported that in mid-May, 1969, he had seen two U.S. POWs in
Quang Nam province, exact location unspecified. The report was correlated to
SSgt. Newton and Sgt. Prevedel on the basis of time, location and
compatibility of the physical descriptions.

Four photos from a Christmas, 1969 film of POWs were correlated by CIA to
Charles Newton, and one to Charles Prevedel. There has been no further
information to surface about Dahill. The Vietnamese deny having any
knowledge of any of the members of Team 6.

By mid-1989, nearly 10,000 reports had been received by the U.S. Government
relating to Americans still missing in Southeast Asia. Many authorities
believe there are still several hundred Americans still alive in captivity.
Charles Prevedel's father died in 1988, never knowing if the faces in the
Christmas film were his son and his partner, or an uncanny coincidence. The
Vietnamese aren't talking, and unfortunately, neither is the U.S.
Government.

It's time we brought our men home.

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                                                [ssrep6.txt 02/09/93]

South Vietnam           Charles V. Newton
                       Charles F. Prevedel
                        Douglas E. Dahill
                             (1428)

On April 14, 1969, Specialist Fourth Class Dahill, Staff Sergeant
Newton and Sergeant Prevedel, Special Force personnel from
Detachment B-52, 5th Special Forces Group, were on a reconnaissance
mission in Quang Nam Province.  They made contact with hostile
forces on April 16th.  On April 17th, Dahill radioed his location
at noon  and reported that they were under attack and requested air
extraction.  There was no further contact with the team.  A search
of the area between April 18 and 25 failed to turn up any sign of
the three missing servicemen, and they were declared missing in
action.  Later, a Viet Cong POW reported sighting two American POWs
in Quang Nam Province in May 1969.  This report was placed on the
files of those in this loss incident as possibly correlating to the
survival of two of the patrol members.

The three missing Green Berets were not accounted for during
Operation Homecoming.  In September 1978 they were declared killed
in action/body not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of
death.

In March 1991, Vietnam returned one tooth, uniform parts and a
small quantity of human remains that were purportedly associated
with the three missing servicemen.  A review board determined that
the limited quantity of material could not conclude any correlation
to the missing servicemen.
 

Special Forces vets Delta Team 6 members Douglas Dahill, Charles Newton, and Charles Prevedel, lost on 15 April 69 in Thua Thien Province have been recovered and identified. Visitation with family to share stories is scheduled for 4 Oct 2011, 6 - 8 PM at Murphy's Funeral Home in Arlington. Team burial with full military honors on 5 Oct 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery. Service at 10:45 AM in the Fort Myer Post Chapel. The public is invited.

 

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 849-11
October 03, 2011
 
Missing Vietnam War Soldiers Identified
 

            The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of three servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

            Master Sgt. Charles V. Newton of Canadian, Texas; Sgt. 1st Class Douglas E. Dahill of Lima, Ohio; and Sgt. 1st Class Charles F. Prevedel of St. Louis, Mo., all U.S. Army, will be buried as a group on Oct. 5 at Arlington National Cemetery.  Newton was also individually identified and will be interred individually at Arlington on the same day as the group interment.  On April 17, 1969, the men and three Vietnamese soldiers were on a long-range reconnaissance patrol operating in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, near the border of Laos.  That afternoon the patrol was ambushed by enemy forces and radioed for air support but thunderstorms in the area prevented rescue attempts.  Search and rescue teams reached the site the next day but over the next week found no signs of the men.

            Between 1990 and 1993,joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), interviewed witnesses, investigated leads and excavated the site associated with the ambush.  The teams recovered human remains, personal effects and military equipment. In 2003, some of the recovered remains were identified as those of Prevedel.  In 2006 and 2007, joint U.S./S.R.V. teams returned to the site and recovered additional remains and military equipment.

            Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains.

            For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.

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02/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000orkBwEAI

SFC CHARLES FRANCIS PREVEDEL

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On November 18, 2003, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant First Class Charles Francis Prevedel, missing from the Vietnam War.

Sergeant First Class Prevedel joined the U.S. Army from Missouri and was a member of the 5th Special Forces Group. On April 17, 1969, he was a part of a long-range reconnaissance patrol in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. The patrol was ambushed by enemy forces, and thunderstorms in the area prevented air support from reaching the recon team. SFC Prevedel was killed during the incident, but search teams that surveyed the area the next day found no sign of him or the other patrol members. However, after the war, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team excavated the site of the ambush and recovered human remains there. In 2003, some of the recovered remains were identified as those of SFC Prevedel.

Sergeant First Class Prevedel 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.