HARRIS WILLIAM THOMAS

Narrative

 Manuel Reyes Denton Luther E. Ritchey (0019) 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. 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. War Story: Two UH-34Ds were searching for a downed Vietnamese Air Force T-28 aircraft piloted by a U.S. Air Force Captain with a Vietnamese observer. Editor's note: Although the reports do not state this, it appears that they may have had a mid-air. One pilot had a fragment wound causing the official report to state they were both probably shot down, but this could not be determined for sure.