RICHARD EUGENE LOMAX

Name: Richard Eugene Lomax

SYNOPSIS: Richard Lomax was a rifleman assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam . He was stationed in Bien Hoa Province , Republic of Vietnam . At 0800 hours on March 26, 1968 , SP4 Lomax was assigned the task of setting demolition charges on an enemy bunker complex found by his platoon while on a search and destroy mission. While placing the charges, there was an explosion in the immediate area of SP4 Lomax and he was never seen again. The search was made for his remains, but the only items recovered were some equipment and remains identified as belonging to another individual who was also at the site. SP4 Lomax is listed with honor among the missing because no remains were found. His case seems quite clear. For others who are listed missing, resolution is not as simple. Many were known to have survived their loss incident. Quite a few were in radio contact with search teams and describing an advancing enemy. Some were photographed or recorded in captivity. Others simply vanished without a trace. When the war ended, refugees from the communist-overrun countries of Southeast Asia began to flood the world, bringing with them stories of live GI's still in captivity in their homelands. Since 1975, over 6000 such stories have been received. Many authorities believe that hundreds of Americans are still held in the countries in Southeast Asia . The U.S. Government operates on the "assumption" that one or more men are being held, but that it cannot "prove" that this is the case, allowing action to be taken. Meanwhile, low-level talks between the U.S. and Vietnam proceed, yielding a few sets of remains when it seems politically expedient to return them, but as yet, no living American has returned.

 Another Son Who Never Came Home

 Mansfield News Journal Monday, May 28, 2001

The family of Richard Eugene Lomax always has been sure of his death in combat.

Lomax a college student and son of Else Garber of Linded Road in Mansfield's other soldier sometimes listed as missing in action. But garber said the army listed her son as officially dead only a short time after he was killed March 26, 1968.

The official designation is "Killed/body not recovered." Garber said the family is very sure of what happened.

The official Army documents says CPL. Lomax was a rifleman assigned to Company A, 3rd. Batalion, 7th. Infantry of the 199th. Light Infentry Brigade in Bien Hoe Province.

Lomax was setting demolition charges on an enemy bunker complex. While placing a charge there was an explosion--and Lomax was never seen again.

According to a document issued by the P.O.W. network in 1998, "SP4 Lomax is listed with honor among the missing because no remains were found. His case seems quite clear.

His Mother agrees. She said that in the past she has received two letters from Vietnamese nationals who claim they saw her son's body. She simply filed them away. Any hopes she had that her son might still be alive ended May 16, 1968, when she got a Western union telegram from the Army that declared her son officially dead.

She has no body. There is a flat military marker on the Lomax family burial plot in Mansfield Cemetery. there are pictures, letters and a Bronze Star her son won in the streets of Saigon in January 1968. He fought and survived a battle in an alley with Viet Cong Infilrators.

A graduate of Mansfield Senior High School, Lomax was a junior at The Ohio State University majoring ineconomics when he decided to two-year military obligation out of the way, his mother recalled.

He was a good student and, his mother said, "very patriotic."