Name: Lawrence Neal Helber
Rank/Branch: O1/US Marine Corps
Unit: VMFA 314, MAG 11
Date of Birth: 05 February 1934
Home City of Record: Logan OH
Date of Loss: 24 January 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 161900N 1073900E (YD830065)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4B
Other Personnel in Incident:
Albert Pitt (missing); Same aircraft.
On another F4B same date, same coordinates:
Doyle R. Sprick (missing)
Delmar G. Booze (missing)
 

REMARKS:

The data above has been corrected by the author of this web site. Originally,
Project Homecoming II had his Unit listed as VMFA 315 MAG 11 (No such Unit exists)
as well as the pilots name (Albert) listed as Albert Sprick. Currently, Lawrence's rank
shown here as 2Lt. is also being verified, some other sites say Capt.

SYNOPSIS:

Capt. Doyle R. Sprick was the pilot and 2Lt. Delmar G. Booze his navigator/bombadier on board
an F4B Phantom fighter jet flying out of Da Nang Airbase, South Vietnam on January 24, 1966.
Sprick and Booze were part of a multi-aircraft strike mission during a Christmas moratorium.
At some point during their mission, while over Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam and about
10 miles south of the city of Hue, the aircraft flown by Sprick and Booze went down. Both men
were declared Missing in Action.

Another F4B, apparently on the same strike mission, was downed at the same location on that day.
This aircraft was also flying out of VMFA 314, 11th Marine Air Group, and presumably departed Da Nang
as well. The second Phantom was flown by Capt. Albert Pitt, accompanied by navigator
2Lt. Lawrence N. Helber. This aircraft disappeared after striking a target. The last contact with the aircraft
was a report that their strike on the target had been successful. Helber and Pitt were declared Missing in Action.

All four Marines lost that day were also given a clarifying code indicating the degree of enemy knowledge of their fates.
These four were all classified Category 4, which means U.S. Intelligence has no information to indicate that the Vietnamese
know their fates.

According to Doyle Sprick's twin brother, Duane, searches were conducted for the aircraft which were extensive and thorough
for the time and condition. The Da Nang area, according to Duane, was unfriendly, so the search and rescue was fairly
restricted since the area was "owned by the Viet Cong at the time."

In 1969, the Central Intelligence Agency received a rather extensive and detailed report relating to a
POW camp near the city of Hue in which scores of Americans had been held. When asked to review photographs
of Americans still missing, the source giving the information positively identified Albert Pitt as having been
detained in this camp. This identification was made on April 11, 1969. The source also listed
the Viet Cong Huong Thuy District Committee members and provided sketches of the committee's headquarters and POW camp.

The U.S. intelligence community determined that it could not "be determined why the source selected (Pitt's) photograph" as he
"was never seen by other US POW's following his loss incident". The source was summarily dismissed, and his information
discounted. The report was classified.

Over 15 years later, this report was unearthed by a concerned citizen through the Freedom of Information Act. He immediately
contacted the family of one of the men on the "positive ID" list, and was shocked to learn that they had never been told
of the report's existence, nor did they have any clue that their son could possibly have been captured.

Since that time, the lengthy report was distributed widely, and came into the hands of two of the men whose name appeared
on the "Positive ID" list who had been fortunate enough to be released in 1973 by the North Vietnamese. These returned
POW's verified the accuracy of the report insofar as the compound was concerned and added that it was a "way station",
or temporary holding center in which POW's were held only for brief periods of time. Thus, they were not surprised to
see many names on the list of men they had not seen at this facility.

Since American involvement in the Vietnam war ended in 1975, nearly 10,000 reports concerning Americans missing
in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Less than 200 of them have been determined to be
false, or fabricated reports. Many have been correlated to individuals who returned to the U.S. in 1973.
In late 1989 about 125 cases were still under investigation, undergoing the "closest scrutiny" the U.S.
intelligence community could give them. Thus far, according to the U.S. Government, it has not been
possible to resolve these cases as false or true. Many authorities are convinced that hundreds of
Americans are still being held prisoner in Southeast Asia.

If Albert Pitt was accurately identified by the Vietnamese source in 1969, he has been criminally abandoned by the country he
proudly served. If Albert Pitt could be forgotten and be held unseen by other American POWs,
why not Sprick? Booze? Helber? Why not several hundred of the nearly 2500 still missing?
If they are alive, why are they not home? Are we doing enough to learn the fates of our heroes?
 

Prepared by Homecoming II Project 01 December 1989.