Name: Dallas Reese Pridemore
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army
Unit: Company D, 87th Infantry, 95th MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade
Date of Birth: 29 April 1941 (Hamlin WV)
Home City of Record: East Liverpool OH
Date of Loss: 08 September 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 105055N 1064535E (XS946989)
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 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.

REMARKS: KIDNAPPED

SYNOPSIS: SSGT Dallas R. Pridemore was a member of D Company, 87th Infantry,
95th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade. Company D was
a separate rifle security company attached to the 95th MP at Long Binh.

On September 8, 1968, SSGT Pridemore was in civilian clothes, visiting a
Vietnamese family residing at 655 Cu Xa Kien Thiet Village, Thu Duc
District, Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam. [NOTE: some sources say this was
the home of Pridemore's girlfriend.] At about 2200 hours, a platoon of the
Thu Duc District [Viet Cong] Unit came to the house during a search for a
former Viet Cong who had defected to the government of Vietnam and kidnapped
Pridemore. The Viet Cong took him to a pagoda in Phong Phu where he was
turned over to a special action group and taken to an unknown location.

The Vietnamese family reported that the Viet Cong told them Pridemore would
be returned in a day or two. Pridemore was never released by the Viet Cong.
The U.S. Army has more information relating to Dallas Pridemore, but it is
still classified.

When 591 Americans were released in Operation Homecoming in 1973, Dallas
Pridemore was not among them. The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of him.
Since that time, the U.S. has given information to the Vietnamese related to
Pridemore in hopes that the Vietnamese will tell us what happened to him,
but if any information has been forthcoming, it is classified.

Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports relating to Americans prisoner,
missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S.
Official government policy is that one or more may be alive, and that the
government is operating under that assumption. Some officials, however,
having reviewed the information, are convinced that hundreds of Americans
are still alive in captivity today.

However, much of the information relating to these men is classified, and
the American public is forced to believe that in twenty years the U.S. has
been helpless to achieve the release of a single prisoner of war. Detractors
of U.S. policy in this matter believe that the will to compel the Vietnamese
to release our servicemen simply does not exist.

Regardless of blame, there may be hundreds of Americans waiting for their
country to come for them. It's time we got answers--and brought our men
home.
 

Dallas Pridemore was promoted to the rank of Sergeant First Class during the
period he was a prisoner of war.

                                                                [r1274.97]
                                  PROJECT X
                        SUMMARY SELECTION RATIONALE

NAME: PRIDEMORE, DALLAS, SSG, USA

OFFICIAL STATUS: CAPTURED

CASE SUMMARY: SEE ATTACHED

RATIONALE FOR SELECTION: SSG. Pridemore was last reported alive in a
temporary screening and interrogation center for US POW's in Svay Teap
District Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia. There is no information which would
indicate evidence of death.

REFNO: 1274 19 Apr 76

CASE SUMMARY

1. (U) On 8 September 1968 SSG Dallas Pridemore was visiting a Vietnamese
family residing at 655 Cu Kien Thiet village, in the vicinity of grid
coordinates (GC) XS 946 989, Thu Duc District, Gia Dinh Province, South
Vietnam. At about 2200 hours a platoon of the Thu Duc District Unit came to
the house during a search for former Viet Cong who had defected to the
Government of Vietnam, and abducted him. SSG. Pridemore was wearing
civilian clothes at the time of his abduction. The Viet Cong took him to a
pagoda in Phong Phu, (not further identified), where he was turned over to
a Special Action Group and taken to an unknown location. (Ref 1 & 2)

2. (C) On 10 September 1968 it was reported that SSG Pridemore was being
held in the Ong Thang Swamp in the vicinity of (GC) XS 965 975. The next
reported knowledge of SSG. Pridemore was on 6 January 1969 when a South
Vietnamese source stated he had learned from an individual that this
individual's brother, who was a Viet Cong Rear Service postal clerk, had
told him of seeing the name "Dollas Primont" with the descriptive
information "sergeant, Military Police, U.S. Army" on a roster at a
temporary screening and interrogation center for U.S. POW's in the vicinity
of (GC) XT 105 265, Svay Teap District, Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia. SSG
Pridemore had been brought to this camp on or about 25 September (1968)
from Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, and had been wearing civilian
clothes when he arrived. He was last known to be in this camp on 4 January
1969. (Ref 3 & 4)

3. (U) ADO Comment: Numerous visits were made to the capture site in an
attempt to confirm the circumstances of capture and obtain additional
details without success. No official or person in the area would admit
knowledge of the incident. Some villagers told Rural Development cadremen
they recalled an M.P. and a girl but didn't know what happened to them. The
Province Chief and Two Party Joint Military Commission were given details
of this case. PUBCOM were distributed throughout the area, but there were
no results, In November 1974 a source reported to ADO, MR-V, that he knew
of a live American in MR-IV. (Source was referred to ADO, MR-IV, after he
reported to ADO, MR-III, knowledge of a score of American graves in the
Delta, and offered to exhume the remains for several million plasters). In
February 1975 this report was tentatively correlated to Pridemore but
follow-up by ADO, MR-IV, determined the source to be highly unreliable.
Pridemore's name and identifying data were given to the Communist PRG
Delegation of the Four-Party Joint Military Team on 8 August 1973 with a
request for information. No response was forthcoming. SSG. Pridemore is
currently carried in the status of Captured.

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