Remains Returned 1993, ID announced 03/16/2001
Rank/Branch: W2/US Army
Unit: 187th Aviation Company, 269th Aviation
Battalion, 12th Aviation Group,
1st Aviation Brigade
Date of Birth: 04 August 1945
Home City of Record: Jacksonville FL
Date of Loss: 24 November 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 111445N 1060714E (XT223433)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1H
Refno: 1531
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
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
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On November 24, 1969, WO Howard B. Comer
was the pilot of a UH1H helicopter (serial #68-
15564) on a general support mission when the
helicopter crashed in the Van Co Dung River in
South Vietnam. The helicopter and its passengers
were recovered, but in spite of an extensive
search, no trace was found of the pilot.
Further search efforts were thwarted by the chief
of the ARVN delegation to the 2-party military
commission. The Tay Ninh Province chief was
concerned about pressure on his province by hostile
forces should he agree to assist in further
searches for missing Americans.
Several source reports were received regarding
Comer's loss. One source reported that his father
had possession of the remains of one U.S. GI and
the father had the source memorize the information
The source provided information on the discovery
of alleged remains and Comer's ID tag, which were
alleged to be found near Cam Giang.
Source provided information on the alleged
discovery of the remains of Comer. A photocopy of
the ID tag was provided. All information matched
information given earlier by the source.
In March 1985, a source relayed hearsay information
regarding the recovery of U.S. remains from a
helicopter crash in Vam Co Dung river near Tay
Ninh city. This report was thought to possibly
correlate to Comer. The same hearsay information
was provided again in February 1986.
Comer apparently did not survive the crash of his
aircraft on November 24, 1969. Because his remains
have never been located, he is listed with honor
For others missing, clear-cut answers are not as
possible as in the case of Howard B. Comer, Jr.
Many were alive and well the last time they were
Some were in radio contact with would-be rescuers
before their voices vanished from the airways.
Others were photographed in captivity or known
captives who simply disappeared from the prison
systems and were not released.
There are nearly 2400 Americans still missing,
prisoner or unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
Unlike "MIA's" from other wars, most of these men
can be accounted for. Since 1975, nearly 10,000
reports relating to these men have been received by
the U.S. Government. A shocking 80% of them are
accurate, and some of them have been correlated to
individuals who have returned. Over 100 of these
reports (which may include more than one individual)
are as yet unresolved, being put through a process
one U.S. Government official terms "the closest
Most authorities believe there are Americans still
alive in captivity in Southeast Asia. Their
opinions differ only in the numbers held.
Unfortunately, none of them have formulated the
solution for bringing them home.
Last Friday, March 16, 2001, the Department of
Defense informed the League that the remains of
one American, listed as KIA/BNR in North Vietnam
since August 30, 1967, had been identified and
returned to his family. The remains were jointly
recovered on August 4, 1993 and accepted by the
NOK as identified on October 21st of last year.
DOD has not yet announced the name of this Navy
officer from Wisconsin. The remains of Warrant
officer 2nd Class Howard B. Comer, missing since
November 24th, 1969, were turned over to US
officials on December 14, 1993, during joint field
operations in South Vietnam. Remains of the third,
also US Army, were jointly recovered and
repatriated June 27, 2000, but his name was not
publicly announced at the request of his family.
The fourth American, Mr. Gustav G. Hertz, was a
civilian employee of the US Government. Now
identified, his remains were unilaterally
repatriated by the government of Vietnam in 1989.
The accounting for these four Americans brings the
number still missing and unaccounted for in
Vietnam to 1493; 418 in Laos, 67 in Cambodia and
8 in the territorial waters of the PRC. Over 90%
of the 1,986 Americans still missing and
unaccounted for from the Vietnam War were lost in
areas under Vietnam's wartime control.
========================================
The Florida Times-Union
Monday, May 28, 2001
Nearly 32 years after a helicopter crash in
Vietnam, Jacksonville man can finally be put to
rest Peace at last for a family DNA helps solve
MIA case Lindsay Tozer, Times-Union staff writer
Howard Comer was young, a gung-ho patriot bent on
the idea of making the world a better place by
doing his part to fell communism in Vietnam.
For more than 30 years, this was the picture Wanda
Babb painted for her son Brian when trying to
explain the father he never knew.
Brian Comer was only 4 months old that late fall
day in 1969 when his father's helicopter crashed
in South Vietnam during a routine mission.
Three men were rescued. Two crew members were
The sixth man, Howard Brisbane Comer Jr. of
Jacksonville, was nowhere.
The Robert E. Lee High School graduate would
remain unaccounted for until this spring, when
military scientists used DNA and other techniques
to identify his skeletal remains.
His younger brother, Preston Comer, said it was
still difficult to believe.
"It's come up several times," the Jacksonville man
"But when they said, 'Where do you want him
buried?' not 'We think we have something' or 'We
might have something,' " the family accepted the
The chief warrant officer, Babb said, will be
buried in Arlington National Cemetery on July 2 as
one more of Jacksonville's missing in action can
be laid to rest. Still, more than 100 remain,
including five from Vietnam.
Today, Comer will be remembered along with more
than 1,500 Jacksonville men and women and the
thousands of others who died in service to the
country. A Memorial Day observance is scheduled
for 6 p.m. at the Duval County Veterans Memorial
Although Babb doesn't subscribe to the philosophy
of closure, the Lake Charles, La., woman said there
is a measure of relief found in the finality of
"At least I know he's back here and will be honored
like he should be and will rest in peace," she
It has been a long 32 years, said Babb, who
remarried in 1986 and was widowed again in 1999.
She dealt with the routine calls and letters
keeping her abreast of the fact that no new
She struggled with the promises each new
presidential administration would dangle before
She coped when a Vietnamese woman claimed to have
Comer's remains which she would return for U.S.
citizenship. Babb said no.
But mostly, she wrestled with what might have
"I think about him daily, every time I look at my
"What my life would have been like, where we would
have lived, what kind of father he would have
On Nov. 27, 1969, four days after the helicopter
went down, Babb answered her door to find three
men, all Army, one a chaplain.
The 24-year-old pilot was missing, they explained
Babb, 20, was left alone with a baby and a host of
"I'd see pictures of the infantry in there and I
thought, 'Why can't they find him? Why can't they
just go in and find him,' " she said of her
Although the family was stunned into a "quiet
shock" at the news Comer was missing, Rita Comer
said her brother had a feeling he would be killed
His farewell still rings in her ears.
"When he and Wanda came to visit me and my husband
in Lake City, he said he felt like something was
going to happen and that he wouldn't be back,"
said Comer, who now lives in Jacksonville. "He
said, 'I just want to tell you I love you and that
I'm not going to worry about it.' He put it in
News accounts of released prisoners kept Babb's
hope buoyed that her husband would come home.
"I was hoping he would see his son," she said, her
voice trailing off. "He never did see his son."
By the early '90s, three different investigation
teams had tackled the case of a fatal crash in the
Van Co Dung River that happened as fighting in
Vietnam reached its most ferocious stage, said
Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Pentagon's
Reports surfaced and villagers came forward about
the skeletal remains in relatives' attics.
Scores of interviews were done and Comer's
military identification card was produced. Plates
from a U.S. chopper were offered up and slivers of
Around Christmas 1993, remains later identified as
Comer's were sent to an identification lab in
Hawaii. It would take eight years of testing and
retesting, including a dozen DNA samplings using
blood drawn from Comer's mother to ensure the
set's completeness, Greer said.
Although using DNA since 1994 and scientists
becoming more savvy with the procedure with each
passing year, "it doesn't make the DNA testing on
the lab table go any faster," he said.
On any given day, Greer said, about 500 people
worldwide are working to locate and identify
As of last month, about 600 missing servicemen
from Vietnam had been identified. Another 1,981
remain unaccounted for, he said, adding that
hundreds of sets of remains are in some stage of
the identification process.
And that makes for 1,981 families who can't let go.
But for the Comers, Rita Comer said, the news of
identification wasn't needed to mae peace with the
fate of the missing pilot.
"My mother is a Christian and after so many years
you put closure on it because you know he's in the
Lord's hands," she said. "His remains are not
important, it is his spirit that makes him who he
