Operation OVERTAKE Escort Ambush
28 May 1968

        On Tuesday, 28 May 1968, at 2250 hours [10:50PM], SP/4 Dennis Rae Mason, age 20, of Argyle, Wisconsin, was driving an escort gun jeep involved in Operation OVERTAKE Darkness on Highway 1A. PFC Roy William Neal, age 21, of Blountville, Tennessee, was the M-60 machine gunner and his passenger was SSG John Herman Wilkens, age 26, the escort NCOIC.

The gun jeep escort was proceeding towards Saigon on Highway 1-A when at 2250 hours (10:50PM) it was ambushed in an area nicknamed “Rocket Alley”, located between the Thu Duc Water Plant and the Newport Bridge. The Viet Cong fired two Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG’s) and small arms fire at the MP jeep. One RPG struck PFC Neal, the other the jeep, causing it to flip over and burst into flame.

SSG Wilkens

SP/4 Mason

PFC Neal

All three men died in the attack. It was later determined that SSG Wilkens had managed to empty one magazine from his M-16 rifle at the attackers before succumbing to his wounds.

Information, photographs, and names of the other MP's that worked this Escort. If you have any photographs of SSG Wilkens, SP/4 Mason or PFC Neal you would like to contribute for use in the Battalion Honor Roll, please notify the History Project Manager via the Email Link on the 28 May 1968 Time Line page.