On June 26, 2023, the Fort George G. Meade Garrison command team participated in a ceremonial demolition of building 9827, McNeill Hall, named after Air Force Sgt. Clarence Leon ‘Boone’ McNeill.
The building will be replaced by new barracks for the Active-Duty service members. Construction is slated to begin this fall.
McNeill was killed in action on February 5, 1969, when the EC-47 aircraft, callsign CAP 72, on which he was serving as an airborne cryptologic linguist, was downed by enemy fire over Laos.
McNeill was born on June 30, 1947, in Wayne County, North Carolina and graduated from James Kenan High School, Warsaw, North Carolina in 1965. After high school, McNeill attended East Carolina University until he joined the Air Force in June 1966.
He completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas and Vietnamese language training at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, California; and technical training at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas. Following completion of training in January 1968, he was assigned to the 6990th Security Group at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. On May 29, 1968, McNeill was reassigned to Det 2, 6994th Security Squadron at Pleiku Air Base, Vietnam.
McNeill was posthumously promoted to the grade of Sergeant on June 1, 1969. His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart (Posthumously), Air Medal (3rd OLC), Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal.
McNeill was originally interred in a communal grave that held unidentified remains at the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri. However, after DNA testing, his remains were identified and on November 28, 2013, McNeill was interred at the Devotional Gardens Cemetery in Warsaw, North Carolina, close to his parents. His name is engraved on the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall on Panel 33W, line 66.
In November 1987, the conference room in Building 1523 at Misawa Air Base, Japan, was re-designated as the McNeill Memorial Auditorium in his honor. In 2004, a dormitory, building 9827, at Fort Meade was re-designated as the McNeill Hall in his honor.
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