HUMPHREY, LARRY D.

Name: Larry D. Humphrey
Rank/Branch: Rank Unknown/US Army
Unit: CO A 538 ENGR BN
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 04 November 1970 (700107 USAEREC LIST)
Country of Loss: Cambodia
Loss Coordinates: 113450N 1044900E
Status (in 1973): AWOL
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: ground
Other Personnel in Incident: (none 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: ESCAPED CUSTODY TO JOIN THE KC

SYNOPSIS: In Vietnam, military experts devised a system to try to relieve
the battle fatigue experienced in earlier wars by those who served long
tours with their units intact. In Vietnam, soldiers were rotated after
roughly one-year tours. The practice had noble intent, but it served to
isolate the soldier and interrupt continuity. Virtually as soon as a man
learned the ropes, he was shipped home and a green replacement arrived to
fill the gap. Some were quite literally in the jungles one day and at home
the next. The emotional impact was terrific and thousands of veterans are
dealing with it two decades later.

Vietnam was also a limited political war, and had peculiar problems: a vague
enemy, restrictive rules of engagement, an uncertain objective, non-military
State Department minds directing many aspects of the war. In certain periods
of the war, military morale was lower than perhaps any other time in our
history.

Adding to these factors was the extremely young age of the average soldier
shipped to Vietnam. For example, the average combatant's age in World War II
was 25 years, while Vietnam soldiers were 19. The young fighters became
jaded -- or old -- or died -- long before their time.

For various reasons, some soldiers deserted or even defected to the enemy.
Their counterparts in the U.S. fled to Canada, manufactured physical or
mental problems, or extended college careers to escape the draft.

There are only a handful of American deserters or AWOL (Absent Without
Leave) maintained on missing lists, and in most cases, that AWOL status is
doubtful, there being other factors involved. At least one of these was
known to have fallen in love with a woman whom he later learned was a
communist. Another fled because he had scrapped with a superior and feared
the consequences. This man was ultimately declared dead, and his AWOL record
expunged.

There is little information regarding those listed as AWOL on the missing
lists. For instance, the Army does not maintain a complete file of Larry D.
Humphrey who was reported AWOL on November 4, 1970 in Cambodia. According to
Defense Intelligence Agency remarks, Humphrey escaped custody (presumably
U.S. custody) to join the communist Khmer Rouge. He was last seen about five
miles southwest of the Cambodian capilol city of Phnom Penh. His fate is
unknown.

A few of the reports among the over 10,000 received relating to Americans
missing or prisoner in Southeast Asia have to do with so-called deserters,
although there is no evidence they have been asked if they want to come
home. In light of the amnesty granted draft dodgers by the United States
Government, can we be less forgiving of them?

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