LACEY, RICHARD JOSEPH

Name: Richard Joseph Lacey
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army
Unit: Long Lines Detachment South, Regional Communications Group, 1st Signal
Brigade
Date of Birth: 25 August 1946
Home City of Record: Pittsburgh PA
Date of Loss: 31 January 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 104535N 1063940E (XS816898)
Status in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground/Jeep
Other Personnel in Incident: William C. Behrens (killed)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Richard Lacey was 19 with a year and a half of college when he
volunteered for the Army. He was selected for Officer Training, but elected
instead to stay in the techical field after completing the first phase of
Signal Corps schooling. After a year of technical training Lacey was equipped
to repair and maintain long lines and was sent to Vietnam in the summer of
1967. He felt lucky to be stationed at the Stratcom Communications Base near
Saigon.

During the Tet offensive, when Richard had been in Vietnam six months, there
was a breakdown of local communications. In the early morning hours, SP5 Lacey
and SP4 William Charles Behrens left the Phu Lam Long Lines Detachment in a
jeep to reach the Regional Communications group in Saigon to relay the many
calls for help from the areas under seige. The two were never heard from again.

On February 3, 1968, SP4 Behren's body was identified at the Than San Nhut
Mortuary by members of his unit. SP5 Lacey was never found, and there are no
records of where Behren's remains were recovered, or who brought them to the
Mortuary.

Between April 8 and April 15, the jeep was recovered at an unknown location.
The condition of the vehicle is not noted.

Following the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements, 591 American prisoners
were released from North Vietnam. Many of them had been captured in South
Vietnam, but Richard Lacey was not among them. Government officials later
expressed their shock that "hundreds" more Americans that were expected to be
released were not. The U.S. Government has been unable to secure the freedom of
any more prisoners held in Vietnam, even though nearly 10,000 reports have been
received concerning Americans still missing in Southeast Asia.

Richard Lacey's family has many unanswered questions. The most important of
these is whether or not Richard is one of the hundreds many authorities believe
are still captive in Southeast Asia. It's time we brought our men home.