Richard
Lacey was 19 with a year
and a half of college
behind him when he
volunteered for the US
Army. He was selected for
Officer Training, but
elected instead to stay in
a technical field after
completing the first phase
of Signal Corps schooling.
After a year of technical
training Lacey was
qualified to repair and
maintain long
communication lines and
was sent to Vietnam in the
summer of 1967. He felt
lucky to be stationed at
the Stratcom
Communications Base, which
was located on the extreme
southern edge of Saigon,
approximately 5 miles due
south of Tan Son Nhut
Airbase, Gia Dinh
Province, South Vietnam.
Richard
Lacey had been in Vietnam
six months when the Viet
Cong's (VC) 1968 Tet
Offensive began. One of
the first moves communist
forces made as they
initiated their offensive
was to disrupt American
and Allied lines of
communication as
completely as possible.
During
the early morning hours of
31 January 1968, when the
breakdown in local
communications was most
critical, then SP5 Richard
J. Lacey and SP4 William
C. Behrens departed the
Phu Lam Long Lines
Detachment for the
Regional Communications
Group located in Saigon.
Their assigned mission was
to relay calls for
assistance from areas
under siege. The two
soldiers, who were
travelling by jeep with
SP4 Behrens being the
driver and SP5 Lacey the
passenger, headed north
into the city of Saigon.
Somewhere
within the few miles
between their base and the
Regional Communication
Group facility the two men
vanished. In the chaos of
the street-to-street
battle that raged
throughout Saigon, Richard
Lacey and William Behrens
were not immediately
missed. This was, in large
part, because all travel
throughout the city had
been totally disrupted by
the VC's offensive. When
personnel at their
destination realized the
two men were long overdue,
headquarters was notified
that they were missing.
Four
days later, on February 3,
1968, SP4 William Behren's
body was identified at the
Tan San Nhut Mortuary by
members of his unit. There
are no records of where or
how William Behren's
remains were recovered, or
who brought them to the
mortuary.
As
the communist offensive
was brought under control,
a formal search and
rescue/recovery (SAR)
operation was initiated
for Richard Lacey. The
streets between the Phu
Lam Long Lines Detachment
complex and the Regional
Communications Group
facility were thoroughly
searched and local
residents questioned.
Between 8 and 15 April
1968, the jeep in which
Richard Lacey and William
Behrens were traveling was
recovered at an unknown
location. Unfortunately,
the condition of the
vehicle was not noted.
Other than recovering the
jeep, no trace of SP5
Lacey was found. At the
time the formal search was
terminated, Richard
Lacey's status was changed
to Missing in Action.
If
Richard Lacey died in this
loss incident, he has the
right to have his remains
returned to his family,
friends and country.
However, if he survived,
his fate, like that of
other Americans who remain
unaccounted for in
Southeast Asia, could be
quite different.
Since
the end of the Vietnam War
over 21,000 reports of
American prisoners,
missing and otherwise
unaccounted for have been
received by our
government. Many of these
reports document LIVE
American Prisoners of War
remaining captive
throughout Southeast Asia
TODAY.
Our
military men in Vietnam
were called upon to fight
under many dangerous
circumstances, and they
were prepared to be
wounded, killed or
captured. It probably
never occurred to them
that they could be
abandoned by the country
they so proudly served.
Incidental Information
