Name: Dennis Lee Eilers
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 06 December 1938
Home City of Record: Cedar Rapids IA
Date of Loss: 24 December 1965
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 154800N 1064400E (XC856474)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: AC47D
Other Personnel In Incident: Arden K. Hassenger; W. Kevin Colwell; Joseph
Christiano; Larry C. Thornton; Derrell B. Jeffords (all missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project with the assistance of one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Date Compiled: 01 January 1990
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SYNOPSIS: On December 24, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson announced a week-long bombing halt on North Vietnam. That same day, an AC47D "Spooky" gunship was shot down during an armed reconnaissance flight just south of the city of Ban Bac in Saravane Province, Laos. Planes in the area of the loss of the plane heard mayday signals, but were unable to establish contact with the crew.
The Spooky had evolved from the famed "Puff the Magic Dragon" versions of the Douglas C47. Puff introduced a new principle to air attack in Vietnam. Troubled by difficulties in conducting nighttime defense, Capt. Ronald Terry of the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division remembered reading about flying missionaries in Latin America who lowered baskets of supplies on a rope from a tightly circling airplane. Throughout the series of pylon turns, the basket remained suspended over a selected point on the ground. Could this principle be applied to fire from automatic weapons? Tests proved it could, and could be extremely successful.
Puff's "flare kicker" illuminated the target, then the pilot used a mark on the window to his left as a gun sight and circled slowly as three multibarrel 7-62mm machine guns fired 18,000 rounds per minute from the door and two windows in the port side of the passenger compartment. The aircraft was called "Puff" after a popular song of the day, and because it resembled a dragon overhead with flames billowing from its guns. Men on the ground welcomed the presence of Puff and the later Spooky version, which was essentially the same as the Puff, because of its ability to concentrate a heavy dose of defensive fire in a surgically determined area. These aircraft were extremely successful defending positions in South Vietnam, but proved unable to survive against the anti-aircraft defenses in Laos.
The Spooky lost in Laos on December 24, 1965 was flown by Col. Derrel B. Jeffords and Capt. Dennis L. Eilers. The crew aboard the aircraft was Maj. Joseph Christiano, MSgt. Larry C. Thornton, TSgt. W. Kevin Colwell, and SSgt. Arden K. Hassenger.
When 591 Americans were released from Vietnam in 1973, the Spooky crew was not among them. As a matter of fact, no American held in Laos was (or has been) released. The Lao were not included in negotiations ending American involvement in the war in Southeast Asia.
In June 1989, Arden Hassenger's wife was informed that a report had been received saying her husband had been sighted alive in Laos. This report is one of nearly 10,000 relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia received by the U.S. Government since the war ended. Mrs. Hassenger was unable to sleep to sleep at night wondering and worrying, yet Arden Hassenger is still missing.
Henry Kissinger predicted in the 50's that future "limited political engagements" would result, unfortunately, in nonrecoverable prisoners of war. We have seen this prediction fulfilled in Korea and Vietnam, where thousands of men and women remain missing, and where ample evidence exists that many of them (from BOTH wars) are still alive today. The U.S. Government seems unable (or unwilling) to negotiate their freedom. For Americans, the "unfortunate" abandonment of military personnel is not acceptable, and the policy that allows it must be changed before another generation is left behind in some faraway war.
