Quinten Emile Mulleavey

Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Date of Birth: 16 December 1948
Home City of Record: North Woodstock NH
Date of Loss: 29 January 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: BR943909
Status (in 1973): AWOL
Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground:
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

SYNOPSIS: In Vietnam, military experts devised a system to try to relieve the battle fatigue experienced in earlier wars by those who served long tours with their units intact. In Vietnam, soldiers were rotated after roughly one-year tours. The practice had noble intent, but it served to isolate the soldier and interrupted continuity. Virtually as soon as a man learned the ropes, he was shipped home and a green replacement arrived to fill the gap. Some were quite literally, in the jungles one day and at home the next. The emotional impact was terrific and thousands of veterans are dealing with it two decades later. Vietnam was also a limited political war, and had peculiar problems: a vague enemy, restrictive rules of engagement, an uncertain objective, non-military State Department minds directing many aspects of the war. In certain periods of the war, military morale was lower than perhaps any other time in our history.

Adding to these factors was the extremely young age of the average soldier shipped to Vietnam. For example, the average combatant's age in World War II was 25 years, while Vietnam soldiers were 19. The young fighters became jaded -- or old -- or died -- long before their time.

For various reasons, some soldiers deserted or even defected to the enemy. Their counterparts in the U.S. fled to Canada, manufactured physical or mental problems, or extended college careers to escape the draft.

There are only a handful of American deserters or AWOL (Absent Without Leave) maintained on missing lists. At least one of these was known to have fallen in love with a woman whom he later learned was a communist. Another fled because he had scrapped with a superior and feared the consequences. This man was ultimately declared dead, and his AWOL record expunged.

There is little information regarding those listed as AWOL on the missing lists. For instance, SP4 Quinten E. Mulleavey disappeared on January 29, 1968. Through the years since then, Mulleavey's name has appeared and disappeared from U.S. Government missing lists. At times, he is listed as AWOL, others not. U.S. Army records as of 1988 indicate his status is AWOL. Details concerning his disappearance are not public information. Without this information, it is impossible to know if Mulleavey deserted.

Some of the reports among the over 10,000 received relating to Americans missing or prisoner in Southeast Asia have to do with deserters, although there is no evidence they have been asked if they want to come home. In light of the amnesty granted draft dodgers by the United States Government, can we be less forgiving of them?

On April 3rd 1968 Quenten Mulleavey of the United States army disappeared. His name does not appear on the dia pow list dated October 11, 1979. Nor does it appear on the chronological list dated April 1980. His name does appear on the brightlights list, dated April 1988, with the case number 2057. (Note: this case number was assigned out of sequence. It was not assigned at the time of loss, but well after the war ended, probably in the late 1980's.) The description following his name reads "missing (w)." Translation: "carried by service as dead but jcrc analysis indicates individual to have been a defector/ collaborator, now carried as dead."

Let's see if jtf-fa (formerly jcrc) can explain this?. Message traffic 200315z Jul 92 (July 20 1992 3:15 a.m.) "subj: summary report of 18th joint field activity in Vietnam 19 Jun-18 Jul 92." Page 21 item e: "case 2057: on 14 and 15 Jul 92, ie3 interview two witnesses who provided information germane to case 2057. The interviews were conducted in the My Duc village people's committee house, Phu my district. The witnesses provided corroborating firsthand testimony regarding the capture and death and subsequent burial of an American serviceman during the dry season of 1967 or 1968. The American was lured along the beach by the female witness to a village where he was taken into custody. The American was shot and killed as u.s. armored forces approached the area where he was being held. The witness led the team to the area of the alleged burial site whist is located in a 6x10 meter area of a plowed field. The site will be recommended for recovery.

Quenten Mulleavey -- poor judgment, probably.... Deserter, hardly. Yet, the U.S. government carried him in a deserter status until well into the late 1980's.