Douglas E. Dahill

Service & Sacrifice

Douglas Edward Dahill was born on March 6, 1949, and grew up in Lima, Ohio, in Allen County. He enlisted in the United States Army and served with the Special Forces, joining Detachment B-52, D Company, 5th Special Forces Group. Assigned to the reconnaissance section, he was among the youngest men in the unit.

On April 14, 1969, a six-man reconnaissance team consisting of team leader SSG Charles V. Newton, SGT Charles F. Prevedel, SP4 Douglas E. Dahill, and three Vietnamese Special Forces troopers was inserted into the jungle-covered mountains of northwestern South Vietnam. Recon Team 6 was tasked with locating and reporting on enemy activity in the areas of Quang Nam and Thua Thien Provinces adjacent to the Laotian border, roughly nine miles from the border.

On April 16, the team reported enemy contact. At noon the following day, April 17, they radioed that they were under heavy attack by a larger enemy force and needed immediate emergency extraction. They called for air strikes on their position. Shortly afterward, radio contact with Team 6 was lost.

Thunderstorms prevented the insertion of a relief force. When rescue aircraft finally reached the area, no trace of the team could be found. SFC Dahill was declared Missing in Action. He was 20 years old.

Nearly four decades later, his remains were recovered on June 10, 2008, and positively identified on October 3, 2008. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in a group burial with his teammates, finally coming home after 39 years.