23-05-2025
A St. Charles man died in Vietnam 54 years ago; efforts to return his remains are intensifying
May 23—ROCHESTER — Area veterans organizations are hosting the first-ever Memorial 5K run to honor the memory of Allen Richard Lloyd, a Special Forces soldier who died in Vietnam, as well as support ongoing efforts to bring home his remains.
The effort to return his remains took a turn in a positive direction recently, 54 years after he died in combat.
The agency responsible for the recovery of personnel listed as missing in action recently announced plans to conduct a survey of the site where Lloyd is believed to have died, leaders of area veterans groups say.
"We're going to keep pushing" to bring him home, said Scott Eggert, president of the Minnesota POW-MIA Riders Association, one of the groups sponsoring the run.
There are currently 23 Vietnam War service members from Minnesota who are listed as MIA, Eggert said.
A St. Charles native, Lloyd was 22 when he was killed in action in 1971 in a helicopter crash.
The 5K run will take place this Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 24, 2025, at VFW Post 1215, 2775 St. NW, Rochester. It will begin with a 9:30 a.m. pre-race ceremony of tribute with the 5K race starting at 10 a.m. It includes a $25 registration fee and a commemorative race shirt that will be distributed to participants while supplies last.
The event is being hosted by Honor Bound Veterans, a recently formed Rochester nonprofit whose aim is to combat veteran isolation and suicide, said Bryan Ehni, president of the group.
"We decided to raise awareness not only of Honor Bound Veterans, but of the POW/MIA Riders' mission of bringing home Allen Richard Lloyd," Ehni said.
Lloyd was last seen alive clinging to a rope from a helicopter as he was being extracted from an intense firefight. The helicopter came under fire and crashed.
The next day, a recovery team was sent to the crash site to search for the patrol that Lloyd was a part of. The bodies of Lloyd and another service member were found on their rope slings. But efforts to retrieve them were aborted when the search team came under fire.
Eggert said that the coordinates where the helicopter went down — on the border of Laos and Vietnam west of the A Shau Valley — are well-documented. His family has never abandoned the hope that Lloyd's remains might be brought home, but its prospects got a boost when the federal POW/MIA Accounting Agency said it planned to conduct a site survey where Lloyd went down sometime in the summer.
"There's many servicemen in that area, so they won't just find one, they'll find many," Eggert said.
The passage of time and the fading of memories can make such efforts seem like a long shot. Yet, recent history offers examples of successful recovery efforts, as the remains of service members dating back to World War II continue to be returned stateside and to Minnesota.
Eggert cited the search for Maj. Benjamin Danielson, an Air Force pilot shot down in 1969 in Vietnam, as an example of how such efforts can bring closure.
Several items belonging to Danielson were brought to the attention of U.S. authorities, sparking a search by the DPAA into Laos looking for more clues and assisted by his son, Brian, a native of Kenyon.
Although no further evidence was discovered, DNA testing of previous evidence provided proof that he'd been killed in action.
As of 2024, there were more than 82,000 service members still missing from previous conflicts. The DPAA estimates that about 38,000 of those remains are potentially recoverable.
"They know that it's there," Eggert said. "What they have to show proof of is that the helicopter is still there."
Eggert said that Lloyd has three living siblings who wish to see their brother brought home. That was a major reason behind focusing the event on him.
"The family members contacted us and said, 'Hey, we're not getting any younger,'" Eggert said. "And we thought, 'Alright, let's put the emphasis on this.'"
