HOWARD, LUTHER HARRIS
Name: Luther Harris Howard
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Unit: Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 35th Artillery, 5th Artillery Group
Date of Birth: 25 September 1947 (Mount Croghan NC)
Home City of Record: Hamlet NC
Date of Loss: 30 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 103025N 1064358E (XS896619)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 0745
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990 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 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On June 30, 1967, SP4 Luther Howard was swimming with a group some
25 miles south of Saigon in Long An Province, South Vietnam in the vicinity
of grid coordinates XC 896 619.
SP4 Howard was seen to go under the water, and never resurfaced. A search
was launched immediately, but was unsuccessful. Efforts to locate him or his
body were continued both on land and sea, but no remains were located.
For those units assigned to shore areas, swimming was a great recreation.
Unfortunately, there were a number of accidental drownings - deaths that
were tragically ironic amidst a war. SP4 Howard is listed with honor among
the missing because no remains were found. His case seems quite clear. For
others who are listed missing, resolution is not as simple. Many were known
to have survived their loss incident. Quite a few were in radio contact with
search teams and describing an advancing enemy. Some were photographed or
recorded in captivity. Others simply vanished without a trace.
Reports continue to mount that we abandoned hundreds of living Americans to
the enemy when we left Southeast Asia. While Howard is almost certainly not
among them, his death is a symbol of a war ended without honor - until all
who fought it come home.
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