Photographic memorial
Dale Ready For The Mission
Dale W. Dehnke was a member of Recon Team Alaska was inserted in the Da Krong
Valley with 1Lt Danny Day Entrican and SP/5 Hollingsworth on 15 May 1971 and the
team was attacked by an enemy force three days later 1 mile from the Laos
boarder. Two surviving commandos, Truong Mihn Long and interpreter Trong Th Ha
reported they rolled downhill after a hostile search party detected them hiding
in a bush, at which point Entrican was apparently wounded and yelled at them to
move out. This action resulted in the separation of the team members. Lt
Entrican was last seen wounded, but alive and attempting to evade the enemy. A
search was initiated but all attempts were unsuccessful. One Special Commando
Scout (name unknown) was killed while performing Body Recovery of the downed
helicopter and for SSG Dehnke's remains. SSG Dehnke was originally assigned to
CCS; however, when CCS was closed, he transferred to CCN July 70. (Note: an
email was received from a personal close friend of Dale's and some of the
information he shared, I feel needs to be listed. "I never knew what happened to
Dale until I found your site...Dale grew up in Santa Monica, CA and was a good
student and a very good baseball player. His dad pushed him very hard to go on
with baseball, and Dale got very frustrated and quit playing and joined the
army. Dale was killed on his 23rd birthday and one year later, his father sat on
Dale's grave and took his own life. It was so sad, because they were a great
family and even now, his mom is unable to talk about Dale or his dad. I named by
1st son after Dale, and am very proud that I did. Never a day goes by that I
don't think about him and wished he were still here"). (See
New Photo's of Dale and Entrican)
Dale
Home On Leave
Dear Robert,
My name is Doug McMillan, and I wrote you a couple of months ago about my close
friend Dale Dehnke. You were kind enough to get back to me and because of your
wonderful site, I have been able to touch base with some great guys who fought
beside Dale and were good friends with him too. I wanted very much to somehow
have a tribute on your site about Dale, but I am not qualified to write about
Dale as a soldier, only as a friend. Billy Waugh has been kind enough to
exchange e-mails with me, and said he would be pleased to help on a tribute to
Dale, as he was Dale's Sgt. Maj. and brought him up to CCN with him from CCS in
the summer of 1970.I have spoken with Jim Butler, Bill Deacy, Ben Lyons, RJ
Graham along with Billy Waugh. All of them were very close to Dale and sent me
letters that brought tears to my eyes, telling of their time and feelings for
Dale. I am only telling you this because of the respect that I have for the work
you are doing, Each day I check your site, because it is about history and
should be recorded for all time. Everyone knows about Audie Murphy, but until I
found your site I had never heard of SOG, or the brave men that served with you
in that unit. I did not know that my friend Dale was in SOG until I read the
chronological area in your memorial, and that lead to me finding his friends. I
have saved the e-mail from the great men of SOG about Dale, and someday would
like to share them with you, but only with their permission of course. Each
letter made me feel so proud of my friend, and helped me realize how tough and
important his job was. Your dedication to SOG along with John Plaster's two
books are so important, because if no one writes about this time in history, in
about 20-25 years there won't be anyone left to tell the truth about a group of
soldiers who should have a special place in history that should be known by all
American's. I hope you continue to have the energy and time to keep going with
your work, as it is so very important. All my best.
Group photo at Ft. Ord. (3rd from left, front row)
Family Photos
Santa Monica High School Baseball Team-1965
Dale is front row, far left.
Santa Monica H.S. Baseball Team