RITCHEY, LUTHER EDMOND JR.

Name: Luther Edmond Ritchey, Jr.
Rank/Branch: E3/US Marine Corps
Unit: HMM 361, Marine Air Group 16
Date of Birth: 27 January 1943
Home City of Record: Mansfield OH
Date of Loss: 08 October 1963
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 160207N 1073440E (YC758744)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH34D
Refno: 0019

Other Personnel In Incident: Manuel R. Denton (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 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: ACFT CRASH AFT AIR COLLISION - J

SYNOPSIS: In 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Johnson
took the office of the President of the United States. Few Americans had
more than a passing knowledge of Vietnam, yet in February, a U.S. Senate
panel reported that annual American aid to South Vietnam totaled $400
million. By the end of the year 16,300 Americans were on station there "on
dangerous assignment." During this year, the war in Vietnam captured U.S.
media attention when Buddhists staged demonstrations, revolts and
self-immolations during that summer.

Lance Corporal Luther E. Ritchey, Jr. was attached to HMM 361, Marine Air
Group 16. Hospital Corpsman Third Class Manuel Reyes Denton was a crewman
assigned to the First Marine Air Wing, Fleet Marine Force Pacific. On
October 8, 1963, the two were crewmen aboard a Marine UH34D helicopter
conducting a search mission for a downed friendly aircraft.

Denton and Ritchey's aircraft crashed some 43 miles west of Da Nang, South
Vietnam in a mountainous jungle terrain, in what was then hostile territory.
The exact cause of the accident is unknown (according to the Navy), although
Joint Casualty Resolution Center had some evidence that an air collision
occurred prior to the aircraft crashing.

Denton and Ritchey were initially placed in a casualty status of Missing and
later changed to Reported Dead. Since their remains were never recovered,
they are listed among the unaccounted for servicemen from the Vietnam war.

Denton and Ritchey are among nearly 2500 Americans still missing from the
Vietnam war. Nearly 10,000 reports have been received regarding these men
since war's end which have convinced many authorities that hundreds are
still alive. Whether Denton and Ritchey are among them is unknown, but as
long as even one man remains alive in enemy hands, we have failed as a
nation.

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