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July 3, 1967, Laos, Vietnam Sergeant Leo E. Seymour disappeared into the shadows of a secret war most Americans never even knew existed.
Before joining the Army, Seymour had already spent four years in the United States Marine Corps. He later advanced through Army ranks and training until being assigned to MACV-SOG’s Command and Control Detachment in 1967. MACV-SOG was not an ordinary unit.
It was a highly classified joint-service organization conducting covert operations deep inside enemy-controlled Laos and Cambodia. The missions carried names like “Shining Brass” and “Prairie Fire,” but the men who walked them simply knew they were among the most dangerous assignments in Vietnam.
Recon teams operated in tiny groups far beyond friendly lines. No uniforms identifying them. No public acknowledgment and often no immediate rescue if things went wrong.
On July 3, 1967, Seymour led Recon Team Texas roughly ten miles inside Laos in Attopeu Province. While halted on a hilltop, the patrol spotted enemy troops moving along a nearby trail. Seymour called in an air strike, then repositioned his men to set an ambush along a secondary trail in the Dale Xow River Valley. Then everything unraveled.
Enemy columns moving through the area noticed a psychological warfare poster left behind by the patrol. Realizing something was wrong, they began searching the jungle and suddenly spotted one of the reconnaissance team’s security men. The jungle exploded in gunfire.
Outnumbered and under intense attack, the patrol fragmented into small groups trying to break contact and survive. When the survivors regrouped, Leo Seymour was gone. No one knew whether he had been wounded, captured, or killed.
Years later, reports identified his last known location near grid coordinates YB575326, but enemy threats prevented ground teams from fully searching the area.
Staff Sergeant Leo E. Seymour remains one of those still missing from that conflict.
#TheVietnamWar
#SpecialOperations #USArmy #USMC #MIA #MilitaryHistory
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