Born in Bossier City, Neil graduated from Bossier City High School and spent two years at Magnolia A&M Junior College in Magnolia, Arkansas, finishing in 1934. Working as a welder, he joined the Louisiana National Guard and was at Camp Hulen in Palacios, Texas when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The next day Neil, a first lieutenant, was on a train to the West Coast. Neil was selected to activate new units for the U.S. Army. Later he was assigned to the 201^st AAA Battalion. In April of 1943, he left Camp Edwards, Massachusetts for North Africa on a converted Greek luxury liner, Nearhelles. Neil commanded a battery of forty-millimeter guns that guarded airfields in Tunis. As the war progressed he set his battery up beside airfields, supply depots, and bridges in Italy and Corsica. He and his men lived in pup tents but ate well. His mess sergeant was a chef from a Boston hotel who asked his buddies to write home for spices the military did not supply. In October of 1944 he was assigned to command First Quartermaster Truck Battalion, a provisional unit with American officers and Italian men. Neil was discharged as a lieutenant colonel at Camp Shelby on March 6, 1946. He set up a machine shop in Shreveport, and joined the Louisiana National Guard as a captain. He requested active duty and began a post-war military career. He served in Louisiana, Germany, Korea, Maryland, and Seattle, meanwhile earning a degree from the University of Maryland. Neil retired as a liaison officer at Barksdale Air Force Base on August 1, 1963. He helped build Bossier Medical Center and worked there as a personnel director and assistant administrator, retiring in 1980.