Barney Neal

LTC Barney King Neal Jr

Commanding Officer 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

4th Infantry Division

KIA 09/11/70

PERSONAL DATA

Home of Record: Oklahoma City, OK
Date of birth: 07/04/1928

MILITARY DATA

Service: Army of the United States
Grade at loss: O5
Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
MOS: 1542: Infantry Unit Commander
Length Service: **
Unit: HHC, 1ST BN, 22ND INFANTRY, 4TH INF DIV, USARV

CASUALTY DATA

Start Tour: 08/09/1970
Incident Date: 09/11/1970
Casualty Date: 09/11/1970
Age at Loss: 42
Location: Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam
Remains: Body recovered
Identified: 09/14/1970
Casualty Type: Non-hostile, died while missing
Casualty Reason: Helicopter - Noncrew Casualty
Detail: Air loss or crash over land

Panel W7 Line 56

Barney Neal was killed when the OH-6A helicopter in which he was a passenger,
crashed and burned after leaving FSB Winnie, at grid reference BR529325,
approximately 12 kilometers south/southeast of An Khe.

LTC Barney Neal at the Base Camp at An Khe, Vietnam, 1970

Photo by David Parrish

LTC Barney Neal's decorations

In early September 1970 Company C 1/22 Infantry had encountered an NVA bunker complex
while on Search and Destroy. On September 11, 1970 LTC Neal left Fire Support Base Winnie
to join Company C at the location of that bunker complex, in order to inspect and examine the complex.
As can be seen by the official report below, LTC Neal's aircraft crashed soon after leaving the
firebase and he was killed. We grunts on the ground at the bunker complex got the word of his death
almost immediately, though it would be at least a week before we got the official cause of the crash.
Until we got that official word, we speculated that his aircraft had been shot down by the enemy.

- SGT Michael Belis Company C 1/22 Infantry 1970-1971

Barney is buried at Resthaven Gardens Cemetery, Oklahoma City, OK.

Grave marker for LTC Barney Neal

Photo courtesy of:

Cheryl L. Shick
Office Manager
Hahn-Cook/Street& Draper Funeral Directors
6600 Broadway Extension
Oklahoma City, OK 73116
Location #2327

By way of Richard Niles

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