Vietnam War · Special Forces reconnaissance team lost in Laos, May 20, 1968 · Unaccounted for
What is known
Robert Duval Owen joined the Army from Virginia and served with the Command and Control Detachment, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). On May 20, 1968, Staff Sgt. Owen was a member of a six-man reconnaissance team inserted by helicopter into enemy-held territory in Salavan Province, Laos. A forward air controller heard from the team once that day. Nothing more was heard.
Two days later a rescue team landed at the same landing zone and, 50 meters in, found signs of a firefight before a company-sized enemy force drove it out. No further search was mounted. The Army later promoted Owen to sergeant first class. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists him as unaccounted for, in its Active Pursuit category. His teammate MSG Glen O. Lane is also missing from the same loss.
His family
His daughter, Robin Owen McNeill, serves the POW Investigative Project as a Family Adviser, Vietnam War.
Request for information
Please contact us if you can help with any of the following.
- Accounts from former North Vietnamese or Pathet Lao soldiers of the six-man reconnaissance team inserted in Salavan province on May 20, 1968, including whether any of its men were captured.
- Where any prisoners from the team were taken, and what happened to them.
The team was heard from once. Two days later a rescue force found signs of a firefight before a company-sized enemy force drove it out. Did the team die fighting? Or were some of its men taken alive into a Laos prison system from which only nine Americans came home?
If you have information about SFC Owen or his teammates, please contact us.