ETTMULIER, HARRY LAWRENCE

Name: Harry Lawrence Ettmullier
Rank/Branch: United States Army/E5
Unit: DET 5 RVN
Date of Birth: 10 November 1944
Home City of Record: Pleasantville NJ
Date of Loss: 03 February 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 162912 North 1073438 East (Hue)
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno:

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 730305 RELEASED BY PRG

SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).

HARRY L. ETTMUELLER
Staff Sergeant - United States Army
Captured: February 3, 1968
Released: March 5, 1973

"We heard the wing fins overhead at times. It was a tremendous joy to hear
the B-52s going over. lt was exhilarating. That's what got me home." This
statement reveals the enthusiasm of Sergeant Harry Ettmueller who returned
home, his spirit unbroken after five years of imprisonment by the Viet Cong.

A crowd of 2500 echoed his enthusiasm in their cheers of welcome as they
greeted him at the airport. The Army Band backed them up as it played "The
Army Goes Rolling Along."

Sergeant Ettmueller was born in Pleasantville, N.J. in 1944 and first
entered the Army in January 1963. He also trained at Fort Dix and was
stationed at Fort Monmouth before being transferred to Korea. He served as a
TV repairman and was then assigned to the Armed Forces Network Vietnam in
April, 1967. He was captured in the city of Hue when the city came under
attack in February, 1968.

Ten years ago Sergeant Ettmueller enlisted. He returned from his first tour
of duty in Vietnam in February 1967, then volunteered to go back. He called
home on January 23rd, five years later President Nixon announced his peace
plans on January 23rd and that was to bring the men home.

He stated that his captors made a mockery of religion and that his life,
generally in the camp was like "living in a vacuum."

Through all this time his mother, Mrs. Bernice Ettmueller, believed that he
would come home someday. She said, "I would have gone over to Vietnam
myself, but I always knew he would be all right." Now he is home with his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ettmueller, and his sisters Doris and Loretta,
who kept the Merry Christmas sign in the front window anticipating his
return.

Sergeant Ettmueller finds a lot of changes have taken place since he left.
"Women's clothes are for the better," he thinks. "Long hair's fine, but you
have to look close to tell which is man or woman." As for the attitudes
here, some are good and some are bad. He found it hard to believe that there
was an anti-war movement; when his captors told him about it, he thought
"they were a bunch of liars." However, his family remained constant. His
initial reaction to being home is that the country has changed 25 years in
five years. Much of it we can hope Sergeant Ettmueller will find for the
better.

December 1999.
Harry and his two children reside in Texas.

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