Staff Sargeant Charles Vernon Newton



OUR ADOPTED POW/MIA:
WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

Name: Charles Vernon Newton
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Recon Team 5, Detachment B-52 DELTA, 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 10 May 1940
Home City of Record: Canadian TX
Date of Loss: 17 April 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 160126N 1073546E (YC778732)

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: 1428

Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.

Other Personnel In Incident: Douglas E. Dahill; Charles F. Prevedel; three South Vietnamese Special Forces personnel

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: SSgt. Charles V. Newton, Sgt. Charles F. Prevedel, SP4 Douglas E. Dahill and 3 unidentified Vietnamese were inserted into Quang Nam Province in South Vietnam as part of Detachment B52 Delta's Reconnaissance Team 6 on April 14, 1969.

On April 16, the team reported making contact with the enemy, but radioed that it was continuing the patrol.

On April 17, the team made its scheduled morning radio contact and reported the team's position. At 206 hours, the team reported to Control and Command that they were in a stream bed and had been hit hard, and requested air strikes. Their location was then in Thua Thien Province, 9 miles from Laos. A Forward Air Controller (FAC) sent into the area was unable to make radio contact with the team. At 1400 hours, thunderstorms in the area prevented the insertion of a relief force.

The next day, a BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment) team was inserted to search for Team 6. They encountered Viet Cong personnel wearing tiger striped fatigues and bearing rifles and grenades of the type used by Team 6. A thorough search of the stream bed and surrounding area yielded no trace of Team 6. Numerous air and ground searches of Team 6 evasion route were conducted with no positive result.

A Viet Cong reported that in mid-May, 1969, he had seen two U.S. POWs in Quang Nam province, exact location unspecified. The report was correlated to SSgt. Newton and Sgt. Prevedel on the basis of time, location and compatability of the physical descriptions.

Four photos from a Christmas, 1969 film of POWs were correlated by CIA to Charles Newton, and one to Charles Prevedel. There has been no further information to surface about Dahill. The Vietnamese deny having any knowledge of any of the members of Team 6.

By mid-1989, nearly 10,000 reports had been received by the U.S. Government relating to Americans still missing in Southeast Asia. Many authorities believe there are still several hundred Americans still alive in captivity. Charles Prevedel's father died in 1988, never knowing if the faces in the Christmas film were his son and his partner, or an uncanny coincidence. The Vietnamese aren't talking, and unfortunately, neither is the U.S. Government.

It's time we brought our men home.