SNIDER, HUGHIE FRANKLIN

Name: Hughie Franklin Snider
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Unit: HHC, 1st Battalion, 77th Armor, 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division
Date of Birth: 29 April 1949
Home City of Record: New Cumberland WV
Date of Loss: 28 April 1970
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 165054N 1071510E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Boat (some sources say ground)
Refno: 1607

Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On Apri 1970, SP4 Hughie F. Snider was taking a swim break with
his unit in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. While many of the men were
swimming, the undertow became treacherous and carried Snider out to sea.
Several attempts were made to keep him afloat, but eventually the
individuals involved could no longer keep up the effort. Helicopters
searched the area, but could find no sign of Snider. Local fishermen and a
Navy destroyer were asked to look for him, but with no results.

Snider's is one of the unfortunate accidental deaths that occur wherever
people are. The fact that he died an accidental death in the midst of war is
tragically ironic. He is listed among the missing with honor, because his
body was never found to be returned to the country he served.

Others who are missing do not have such clear cut cases. Some were known
captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards. Some were
in radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.

Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those
who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several
million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to
agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Distractors say it would be
far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive
home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.

Over 1000 eye-witness reports of living American prisoners were received by
1989. Most of them are still classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe,
the men are all dead, why the secrecy after so many years? If the men are
alive, why are they not home?

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