Always on our Minds
Forever in our Hearts
SSGT Dallas Reese Pridemore
PRIDEMORE, DALLAS REESE
Name: Dallas Reese Pridemore
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army
Unit: Company D, 87th Infantry,
95th MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade
Date of Birth: 29 April 1941 (Hamlin WV)
Home City of Record: East Liverpool OH
Date of Loss: 08 September 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 105055N 1064535E (XS946989)
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel in Incident: (none 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.
REMARKS: KIDNAPPED
SYNOPSIS: SSGT Dallas R. Pridemore was a member of
D Company, 87th Infantry,
95th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade.
Company D was a separate rifle security company
attached to the 95th MP at Long Binh.
On September 8, 1968, SSGT Pridemore was in civilian clothes,
visiting a Vietnamese family residing at
655 Cu Xa Kien Thiet Village,
Thu Duc District, Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam.
[NOTE: some sources say this was the home of Pridemore's girlfriend.]
At about 2200 hours, a platoon of the Thu Duc District
[Viet Cong] Unit came to the house during a search for a former Viet Cong who
had defected to the government of Vietnam and kidnapped Pridemore.
The Viet Cong took him to a pagoda in Phong Phu
where he was turned over to a special action group
and taken to an unknown location.
The Vietnamese family reported that the Viet Cong
told them Pridemore would be returned in a day or two.
Pridemore was never released by the Viet Cong.
The U.S. Army has more information relating to
Dallas Pridemore, but it is still classified.
When 591 Americans were released in Operation Homecoming
in 1973, Dallas Pridemore was not among them.
The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of him.
Since that time, the U.S. has given information
to the Vietnamese related to Pridemore in hopes that
the Vietnamese will tell us what happened to him,
but if any information has been forthcoming,
it is classified.
Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports relating to Americans
prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia
have been received by the U.S.Official government
policy is that one or more may be alive,
and that the government is operating under that assumption.
Some officials, however, having reviewed the information,
are convinced that hundreds of Americans are still alive in captivity today.
However, much of the information relating to
these men is classified, and the American public
is forced to believe that in twenty years the U.S.
has been helpless to achieve the release of
a single prisoner of war.
Detractors of U.S. policy in this matter believe that
the will to compel the Vietnamese to release our servicemen
simply does not exist.
Regardless of blame,
there may be hundreds of Americans
waiting for their country to come for them.
It's time we got answers--and brought our men home.
Dallas Pridemore was promoted to the rank of
Sergeant First Class during the period
he was a prisoner of war.
[R1274.97]
PROJECT X
SUMMARY SELECTION RATIONALE
NAME: PRIDEMORE, DALLAS, SSG, USA
OFFICIAL STATUS: CAPTURED
CASE SUMMARY: SEE ATTACHED
RATIONALE FOR SELECTION:
SSG. Pridemore was last reported alive
in a temporary screening and interrogation center for US POW's
in Svay Teap District Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia.
There is no information which would indicate evidence of death.
REFNO: 1274 19 Apr 76
CASE SUMMARY
1. (U) On 8 September 1968 SSG Dallas Pridemore was visiting a
Vietnamese family residing at 655 Cu Kien Thiet village,
in the vicinity of grid coordinates (GC) XS 946 989,
Thu Duc District, Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam.
At about 2200 hours a platoon of the Thu Duc District Unit
came to the house during a search for former Viet Cong
who had defected to the Government of Vietnam, and abducted him.
SSG. Pridemore was wearing civilian clothes
at the time of his abduction.
The Viet Cong took him to a pagoda in Phong Phu,
(not further identified), where he was turned over to a Special
Action Group and taken to an unknown location. (Ref 1 & 2)
2. (C) On 10 September 1968 it was reported that
SSG Pridemore was being held in the Ong Thang Swamp
in the vicinity of (GC) XS 965 975.
The next reported knowledge of SSG. Pridemore
was on 6 January 1969 when a South Vietnamese source
stated he had learned from an individual that this individual's
brother who was a Viet Cong Rear Service postal clerk,
had told him of seeing the name "Dollas Primont"
with the descriptive information "sergeant, Military Police,
U.S. Army" on a roster at a temporary screening and
interrogation center for U.S. POW's in the vicinity of
(GC) XT 105 265, Svay Teap District, Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia.
SSG Pridemore had been brought to this camp on or about
25 September (1968) from Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam,
and had been wearing civilian clothes when he arrived.
He was last known to be in this camp on 4 January 1969. (Ref 3 & 4)
3. (U) ADO Comment: Numerous visits were made to the
capture site in an attempt to confirm the circumstances
of capture and obtain additional details without success.
No official or person in the area would admit
knowledge of the incident. Some villagers
told Rural Development cadremen they recalled an M.P.
and a girl but didn't know what happened to them.
The Province Chief and Two Party Joint Military
Commission were given details of this case.
PUBCOM were distributed throughout the area,
but there were no results. In November 1974
a source reported to ADO, MR-V,
that he knew of a live American in MR-IV.
(Source was referred to ADO, MR-IV, after he
reported to ADO, MR-III, knowledge of a score
of American graves in the Delta, and offered to exhume
the remains for several million plasters).
In February 1975 this report was tentatively
correlated to Pridemore but follow-up by ADO, MR-IV,
determined the source to be highly unreliable.
Pridemore's name and identifying data were given to
the Communist PRG Delegation of the Four-Party Joint
Military Team on 8 August 1973
with a request for information.
No response was forthcoming.
SSG. Pridemore is currently carried in the status of
Captured.
REFERENCES USED
1. RPT (U), Serious Incident Blue Bull Report,
091200 Sep 68.
2. DF 2496 (U), CO 702d
MID: Pridemore, 30 September 1968.
3. IIR (C), Unnumbered, 15 ARVN MID, 10 Sep 68.
4. IIR (C), 6ACX/025/69, 525 MI GP, 7 Jan 69.
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