In Loving Memory

Dale W. Dehnke

Dale Ready For The Mission

Dale W. Dehnke was a member of Recon Team Alaska was inserted in the Da Krong Valley with 1Lt Danny Day Entrican and SP/5 Hollingsworth on 15 May 1971 and the team was attacked by an enemy force three days later 1 mile from the Laos boarder. Two surviving commandos, Truong Mihn Long and interpreter Trong Th Ha reported they rolled downhill after a hostile search party detected them hiding in a bush, at which point Entrican was apparently wounded and yelled at them to move out. This action resulted in the separation of the team members. Lt Entrican was last seen wounded, but alive and attempting to evade the enemy. A search was initiated but all attempts were unsuccessful. One Special Commando Scout (name unknown) was killed while performing Body Recovery of the downed helicopter and for SSG Dehnke's remains. SSG Dehnke was originally assigned to CCS; however, when CCS was closed, he transferred to CCN July 70. (Note: an email was received from a personal close friend of Dale's and some of the information he shared, I feel needs to be listed. "I never knew what happened to Dale until I found your site...Dale grew up in Santa Monica, CA and was a good student and a very good baseball player. His dad pushed him very hard to go on with baseball, and Dale got very frustrated and quit playing and joined the army. Dale was killed on his 23rd birthday and one year later, his father sat on Dale's grave and took his own life. It was so sad, because they were a great family and even now, his mom is unable to talk about Dale or his dad. I named by 1st son after Dale, and am very proud that I did. Never a day goes by that I don't think about him and wished he were still here").

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