Sgt. Curtis Howard's parents are still seeking answers

Sgt. Curtis Howard's parents are still seeking answers

By anash

May 26, 2008, 9:09AM

Leisa Thompson | The Ann Arbor News

Linda and Curtis Howard Sr. and their daughter, Marquita, sit by the grave of their son and brother, Army Staff Sgt. Curtis Howard II, at Arborcrest Memorial Park on Wednesday. The soldier was killed in Iraq in February 2006 and his family is trying to find out exactly how he died, but are finding it hard to get all the details from the government.

Curtis Howard has yet to open a Federal Express overnight package he received more than two years ago. It holds his son's autopsy report.

Undoubtedly, that document would shed light on what happened on Feb. 22, 2006, when U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Curtis T. Howard II was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb.

But the Ann Arbor father says reading that report would be too traumatic as he and his wife still struggle with the death of their only son.

"We haven't gotten past that hurdle yet," he said. "Not yet."

They know the autopsy report will be horrific. The funeral director advised them not to view their son's body.

"I would have some closure if we saw Curtis' body," said Linda Howard, Curtis' mother. "I cannot get closure." So they search for it in other ways.

Until the Howards find the strength to read the autopsy report, they are trying to piece together some of their son's final day from conflicting accounts from the military.

They're also looking for things the autopsy won't reveal. Why was the tank they went out to secure left unattended, as they've been told secondhand? Did anyone witness the explosion that killed Howard and two other soldiers with him?

Curtis T. Howard II

Curtis Howard said their quest for answers isn't an all-consuming mission, but they hope more details will help them grieve.

"We just want to know the circumstances of what happened on the last day of his life," Curtis Howard said. "That closure. ... Now, we are at the stage we have all these questions, and we want some answers. Now, I really want to find out what happened."

Through a series of conversations with Army officials, soldiers and relatives of soldiers, they've pieced together unofficial accounts of their 32-year-old son's final day.

The military said Curtis T. Howard II, a 1991 Huron High School graduate, died with two other soldiers when the Bradley fighting vehicle he was in hit a roadside bomb.

But Curtis Howard has some doubt about the military's official account.

On Feb. 23, 2006, the Howards learned of their son's death. They asked military officials if their son suffered. They were told he died instantly.

But a few months after the funeral, Curtis Howard noticed a discrepancy in a March 29, 2006, letter the military sent them. This letter said their son was airlifted out and died en route to the hospital. The letter said doctors pronounced him dead once he arrived at Balad Airbase in Iraq.

Curtis Howard said he also was told by an Army casualty officer - those assigned to families of soldiers who are killed - that the two other soldiers who died that day were burned but their son was on top of the vehicle and didn't suffer burns.

More information came from a network of soldiers in their son's unit, as well as relatives of those soldiers.

One soldier's relative told the Howards about a soldier who cradled their son until he died. They heard that soldier still had nightmares from being covered with blood and had to take constant showers.

Hearing those details secondhand, Curtis Howard decided to press the military for more information. But they were told no official report of the incident existed.

Three months ago, Curtis Howard's hopes were raised when he spoke to an administrator at an Army base in Fort Knox, Ky. He asked for information, and over the phone, the administrator read from a report.

She said their son died en route to the hospital and read that "the soldier sustained burns and blast trauma." The report also included details the Howards didn't know, like the exact combat gear their son was wearing - right down to the ear plugs.

Curtis Howard thought perhaps there was a large file on their son they hadn't discovered.

But there wasn't. And it was one of their more frustrating discoveries.

Until October 2006 - more than three years into the war - the military didn't routinely investigate "hostile deaths," said Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb.

"After reviewing our practices, the Army determined that we should investigate all deaths, which allows us to provide the families of our fallen the most accurate information available," Edgecomb wrote in an e-mail to The News.

In a phone interview, Edgecomb said the investigations sometimes uncover more details about soldiers killed in action.

She said investigators now talk to witnesses and others in the area, learning sometimes that a blast caused a vehicle to roll over and kill soldiers - not the blast itself. She said a roadside bomb can disable a vehicle, and fire from the enemy can kill soldiers. "It could be a whole lot of things," Edgecomb said.

Curtis Howard said he's disappointed it took the Army so long to do additional fact-finding of deaths. "They have a traffic accident over there, they do a report," he said. So in a folder, the father keeps all the different files from the military.

He filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get a report that listed his son's body armor and equipment on that final day.

It arrived April 4 - just one more piece in a puzzle they keep trying to put together.

Curtis Howard has e-mailed some soldiers in his son's unit several times in the past year, but hasn't received a response. He said he doesn't want to pressure them, but is determined not to quit.

And he knows he has a large piece of that puzzle in the autopsy report. It remains unopened, sealed in a cardboard package dated April 14, 2006.

A few weeks ago, the Howards discussed eventually opening that package. Perhaps, they thought, someone with medical expertise should read it first and tell them about it. But for now, it stays unopened.

"Sometimes," the father says, "not knowing is better than knowing."

Pfc. Allan A. Morr



Hometown: Byron, Michigan, U.S.

Age: 21 years old

Died: February 22, 2006 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Unit: Army, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.

Incident: Killed when a makeshift bomb exploded near his Humvee during patrol operations in Hawijah.

Allan Andrew Morr

MORR, Allan Andrew US Army PFC - Of Byron, age 21, died Wednesday, February 22, 2006 as the result of his vehicle being hit by a roadside bomb in Hawijah, Iraq. Funeral service was held at 11AM today.

Published in Flint Journal from March 1 to March 6, 2006


Sgt. Joshua V. Youmans



Hometown: Flushing, Michigan, U.S.

Age: 26 years old

Died: March 1, 2006 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Unit: Army National Guard, 1st Battalion,125th Infantry Regiment, Saginaw, Mich.

Incident: Died at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Tex., from injuries sustained on Nov. 21, when a makeshift bomb exploded near his Humvee during combat operations in Habbaniyah.