In Loving Memory

Dale W. Dehnke

Dale Home On Leave

My name is Doug McMillan, and I wrote you a couple of months ago about my close friend Dale Dehnke. You were kind enough to get back to me and because of your wonderful site, I have been able to touch base with some great guys who fought beside Dale and were good friends with him too. I wanted very much to somehow have a tribute on your site about Dale, but I am not qualified to write about Dale as a soldier, only as a friend. Billy Waugh has been kind enough to exchange e-mails with me, and said he would be pleased to help on a tribute to Dale, as he was Dale's Sgt. Maj. and brought him up to CCN with him from CCS in the summer of 1970.I have spoken with Jim Butler, Bill Deacy, Ben Lyons, RJ Graham along with Billy Waugh. All of them were very close to Dale and sent me letters that brought tears to my eyes, telling of their time and feelings for Dale. I am only telling you this because of the respect that I have for the work you are doing, Each day I check your site, because it is about history and should be recorded for all time. Everyone knows about Audie Murphy, but until I found your site I had never heard of SOG, or the brave men that served with you in that unit. I did not know that my friend Dale was in SOG until I read the chronological area in your memorial, and that lead to me finding his friends. I have saved the e-mail from the great men of SOG about Dale, and someday would like to share them with you, but only with their permission of course. Each letter made me feel so proud of my friend, and helped me realize how tough and important his job was. Your dedication to SOG along with John Plaster's two books are so important, because if no one writes about this time in history, in about 20-25 years there won't be anyone left to tell the truth about a group of soldiers who should have a special place in history that should be known by all American's. I hope you continue to have the energy and time to keep going with your work, as it is so very important. All my best.

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