Name: John Dewey Killen III
Rank/Branch: E3/USMC
Unit: A Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 23 August 1948
Home City of Record: Des Moines IA
Date of Loss: 30 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 161349N 1074301E (YC896956)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH46A
Other Personnel In Incident: John House; Michael Judd; Merlin Allen; Glyn
Runnels (all still missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: DED/CRSH BRN/SOM RECOV/NT SUBJ
SYNOPSIS: Capt. John A. House was the pilot of an CH46A helicopter carrying personnel assigned to Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division near the city of Phu Bai, South Vietnam on June 30, 1967. Among the passengers onboard the aircraft were members of Company A, LCpl. Merlin R. Allen, LCpl. John D. Killen, and Cpl. Glyn L. Runnels. Also onboard was the company's hospital corpsman, Petty Officer Third Class Michael B. Judd.
The aircraft was hit by small arms fire, exploded and crashed. Although some of the personnel aboard survived, House, Allen, Judd, and Killen were never found, nor were remains recovered that could be identified as theirs. The four men were listed as killed in action, body not recovered.
Nearly 2500 Americans did not return from Southeast Asia at the end of the war. Some, like the pilot and passengers of the CH46, are probably dead and will never come home. Since the end of the war, however, thousands of refugee reports have been received that indicate hundreds of Americans are still alive, held captive.
It is a matter of pride in the Marine Corps that one's comrades are never left on the field of battle to fall into the hands of the enemy. One can imagine that these men, had they survived, would willingly go one more mission for the return of those who still await rescue.
Although some of the personnel aboard survived, House was never found, nor were remains recovered that could be identified as his. He was listed as killed in action, body not recovered.
