Staff Sargeant Michael Millner

OUR ADOPTED POW/MIA
WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

Name: Michael Millner
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Detachment A-351, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 17 December 1942 (Alhambra CA)
Home City of Record: Marysville CA
Date of Loss: 29 November 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 120201N 1065404E (YU069309)

Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2 -- Suspect knowledge
A. Involved in the same incidents as individuals in Category 1.
B. Lost in areas or under conditions that they may reasonably be expected to be known by the enemy.
C. Connected with an incident that was discussed but not identified by name in the enemy news media, or
D. Probably identified through analysis of all-source intelligence.

Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 0930


Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)


Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Michael Millner joined the Army in 1969 from his hometown of Marysville, California. He was seventeen years old. By the time he was shipped to Vietnam the Army had promoted him to Staff Sergeant and trained him in light weapons, and he wore a Green Beret. In Vietnam, he was assigned to Detachment A-351, 5th Special Forces Group.

On November 26, 1967, Millner was serving as an advisor to an ARVN CIDG unit which began a search and destroy operation near the border of Cambodia in Phuoc Long Province, South Vietnam. On November 29, the LLDB commander wanted to stop the troops for lunch, against the advice of the U.S. senior advisor to the team, Capt. Matthew J. Hasko.

While breaking for lunch, the unit was attacked by a Viet Cong company. The CIDG became completely disorganized and ran from the field as Special Forces personnel tried to cover the rear and carry the wounded. When the group finally reorganized, Millner was missing. The Special Forces advisors were unable to lead the ARVN back to the area to search for Millner, and withdrew from the area.

On December 2, 1967, a U.S. advisor and a six-man Vietnamese reconnaissance unit made an unsuccessful search of the area. Between December 6 and December 9, a Special Forces unit and their Cambodian trainees made an extensive ground search, supported by aircraft, with no success.

SSGT Michael Millner remained Missing in Action until 1974. At this time, the Army administratively declared him dead, based on no specific information that he was still alive. It is believed that the Vietnamese could account for Millner.

Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports relating to Americans prisoner, missing and otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Many authorities who have examined this largely-classified information have reluctantly come to the conclusion that many Americans are still alive in captivity today.

Whether Michael Millner survived the attack on 29 November 1967 is not known. His training would certainly enable him to evade for a considerable amount of time, or cope with the horrible conditions prisoners of the Viet Cong were forced to endure.

What is certain, however, is that as long as even one American is held against his will in Indochina, we have a legal and moral responsibility to bring him home.