WOMACK, LONNIE H.

Name: Lonnie H. Womack
Rank/Branch: E3/US Navy
Unit:
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 20 October 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 160400N 1081300E
Status (in 1973): AWOL
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno:
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1991 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: NOT HEARD OF SINCE

SYNOPSIS: In Vietnam, military experts devised a system to try to relieve
the battle fatigue experienced in earlier wars by those who served long
tours with their units intact. In Vietnam, soldiers were rotated after
roughly one-year tours. The practice had noble intent, but it served to
isolate the soldier and interrupted continuity. Virtually as soon as a man
learned the ropes, he was shipped home and a green replacement arrived to
fill the gap. Some were quite literally, in the jungles one day and at home
the next. The emotional impact was terrific and thousands of veterans are
dealing with it two decades later.

Vietnam was also a limited political war, and had peculiar problems: a vague
enemy, restrictive rules of engagement, an uncertain objective, non-military
State Department minds directing many aspects of the war. In certain periods
of the war, military morale was lower than perhaps any other time in our
history.

Adding to these factors was the extremely young age of the average soldier
shipped to Vietnam. For example, the average combatant's age in World War II
was 25 years, while Vietnam soldiers were 19. The young fighters became
jaded -- or old -- or died -- long before their time.

For various reasons, some soldiers deserted or even defected to the enemy.
Their counterparts in the U.S. fled to Canada, manufactured physical or
mental problems, or extended college careers to escape the draft.

There are only a handful of American deserters or AWOL (Absent Without
Leave) maintained on missing lists. At least one of these was known to have
fallen in love with a woman whom he later learned was a communist. Another
fled because he had scrapped with a superior and feared the consequences.
This man was ultimately declared dead, and his AWOL record expunged. Most
are on the list of missing because there is some doubt that their AWOL
status is valid.

There is little information regarding those listed as AWOL on the missing
lists. For instance, the Navy does not maintain a missing file of Navy
enlistedman Lonnie H. Womack, who was reported AWOL October 20, 1967.
Defense Intelligence Remarks state simply that he was never heard from
again. His story and his fate are unknown.

Some of the reports among the over 10,000 received relating to Americans
missing or prisoner in Southeast Asia have to do with deserters, although
there is no evidence they have been asked if they want to come home. In
light of the amnesty granted draft dodgers by the United States Government,
can we be less forgiving of them?

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