Major MacNeil served as a team leader in the Humanitarian Cell of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda during the civil war in 1994. On 3 May 1994, he was evacuating sixty Tutsis from their hotel to the Kigali Airport, when they and their UN escort were surrounded. After several hours of negotiations under threat, including by inebriated militiamen, Major MacNeil succeeded in extricating the vehicles, thus saving the lives of the Tutsis. Throughout his tour of duty, he was responsible for the successful transfer of nearly four thousand displaced persons.