Name: Fred Howell McMurray Jr.
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: 1st Air Calvary Division
Date of Birth: 16 November 1943
Home City of Record: Charleston SC
Date of Loss: 07 April 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164413N 1064814E (XD925512)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: OH13S
Other Personnel In Incident:
James J. Powers (rescued)
Source:
Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 March 1991 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Copyright 1991 Homecoming II
Project.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS:
At 1600 hours on April 7, 1968, 1Lt. McMurray was the pilot of an
OH13S helicopter, tail number 63-9084, with one observer/door gunner, Sgt. James
J. Powers. The aircraft departed the 1st Air Cavalry Division base at Landing
Zone Stud with an AH1G armed helicopter escort for a reconnaissance mission in
the support of an operation. 1Lt. McMurray was flying low-level when he reported
seeing several recently-repaired weapons positions and freshly used trails.
1Lt. McMurray marked the location with a smoke grenade to allow the AH1G to identify and fire rockets on the target. He also reported sighting NVA soldiers, whom he engaged. The escort helicopter continued to place suppresive fire in the area, and transmitted a request for a rifle platoon which was launched and was over the area in about 15 minutes. During the fighting, 1Lt. McMurray's aircraft received enemy fire, began burning in flight, and crashed. Sgt. Powers, badly burned, was recovered some distance from the aircraft, but McMurray was not.
At that time, efforts to locate McMurray were thwarted by the intense heat from the burning aircraft. The next day search teams could find no trace of him. However, one American boot-print was seen, along with McMurray's chest protector and helmet. Because there was not trace of him in the helicopter, his family believes there is every reason to believe he was captured.
McMurray is among nearly 2500 Americans still prisoner, missing or otherwise unaccounted for from the Vietnam war. When the war ended and 591 Americans were released in 1973, military experts expressed their dismay that "some hundreds" of POWs were not. Since that time, thousands of reports have been received, indicating that many Americans are still being held against their will in Southeast Asia. Whether McMurray is among them is not known. What is certain, however, is that if only one American remains alive in enemy hands, we owe him our best effort to bring him home.
Fred McMurray attended Porter Military Academy and graduated from Clemson University in 1966.
