HOWES, GEORGE ANDREWS

Name: George Andrews Howes
Rank/Branch: W1/US Army
Unit: 71st Aviation Company, 14th Aviation Battalion, 16th Aviation Group, 23rd
Infantry Division (Americal), Chu Lai, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 16 June 1950 (Little Rock AR)
Home City of Record: Knox IN
Date of Loss: 10 January 1970
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 152927N 1081808E (BT239141)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1C

Other Personnel In Incident: Wayne C. Allen; Herbert C. Crosby; Francis G.
Graziosi (all missing)

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

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On January 10, 1970, Capt. Herbert C. Crosby, pilot; WO George A.
Howes, co-pilot; SP5 Wayne C. Allen, crew chief; and SP4 Francis G. Graziosi,
door gunner; were flying a UH1C helicopter (serial #66-739) as the flight lead
in a flight of three helicopters returning from Tien Phuoc to the unit base at
Chu Lai, South Vietnam.

(Note: Records differs as to the aircraft type on this incident. Some records
show the aircraft type this crew was flying as UH1H, and some show it as a
UH1C. Herbert Crosby flew Charlie models every day from at least July 1969 to
January 1970. The serial number, #66-739 correlates to a C model, the first two
numbers indicating that the aircraft had been made in 1966, and the H model
only had come out a few months before this time. Although C models were
gunships, and usually flew more or less independently, while this aircraft was
flying in tight formation as flight lead, which would correlate with the H
model, it has been confirmed that the ship on which this crew was flying was
definitely a Charlie model.)

At 1300 hours, the three helicopters departed Tien Phuoc. Five to ten minutes
later, due to instrument flight rules, Capt. Crosby directed the flight to
change to a different flight heading. When the helicopters changed frequencies
to contact Chu Lai ground control approach, radio contact was lost with Capt.
Crosby and was not regained.

The other two aircraft reached Chu Lai heliport, and at 1400 hours, serach
efforts were begun for the missing aircraft, although the crew was not found.

According to a 1974 National League of Families report, George Howes survived
the crash of this helicopter. The report further maintains that the loss
occurred in Laos, although the coordinates place it some 40-odd miles from that
country.

A North Vietnamese prisoner released later reported that he had seen Howes in
captivity the same month the helicopter went down. A second sighting by a
villager in Phuoc Chouc (or Phouc Chau) village reported Howes and two other
POWs stopped for water at his house in February, 1970, en route to Laos.
Whether these reports also relate to Allen, Crosby and Graziosi, is unknown.

When the last American troops left Southeast Asia in 1975, some 2500 Americans
were unaccounted for. Reports received by the U.S.Government since that time
build a strong case for belief that hundreds of these "unaccounted for"
Americans are still alive and in captivity.

"Unaccounted for" is a term that should apply to numbers, not men. We, as a
nation, owe these men our best effort to find them and bring them home. Until
the fates of the men like the UH1C crew are known, their families will wonder
if they are dead or alive .. and why they were deserted.

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