Perryville Arkansas

Harold George Bennett, age 25, from Perry County Perryville, Arkansas .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Tuesday, December 29, 1964
Death details: On December 29, 1964, two U.S. service members were serving as advisors to a group of South Vietnamese troops inserted on a mission near Binh Gia Village in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. The unit moved to the vicinity of grid coordinates YS 549 755 where they made contact with enemy forces. During the ensuing firefight, the unit broke up, and the two U.S. soldiers were captured. One was eventually released back to U.S. custody, but the other died in captivity and his remains were not recovered. Sergeant Harold George Bennett entered the U.S. Army from Arkansas and served in Detachment 5891, Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. He was the U.S. advisor on this mission who died while in enemy custody. The advisor who survived the incident and after his release in 1967, reported that SGT Bennett died during a prisoner of war (POW) camp move in May 1965, when he became weak and fell behind and was executed. The circumstances surrounding any burial of his remains at the time are unknown, and attempts to locate his remains following the war have been unsuccessful. Following his loss, the Army promoted SGT Bennett to the rank of Staff Sergeant (SSG). Today, Staff Sergeant Bennett is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, UPI (1965)