Military Figure. A Vietnam War veteran, he was a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps who was captured in 1988 while serving on a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, where he was held hostage, tortured and eventually murdered by his captors. Born in Danville, Kentucky, he graduated from Southern High School in Louisville, Kentucky and earned his bachelor's degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A scholarship student in the Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps, he received the U.S. Marine Corps Association Award, and in 1967 he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Marine Corps. In 1968, he was sent to the Republic of Vietnam where he participated in combat operations with C Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, as a rifle platoon commander and rifle company executive officer, and was aide-de-camp to the Assistant 3rd Marine Division Commander. The following year he returned to the U.S. and served at Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps. In 1970 he served as the Officer-in-Charge of the Officer Selection Team in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1972, he returned to Vietnam at the rank of captain and served as an infantry battalion advisor to the Vietnamese Marine Corps, and the following year, he served as a rifle company commander with B Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines. Upon returning to the U.S., he served at the Staff Noncommissioned Officers Academy and Officer Candidate School, both in Quantico, Virginia, from 1973 until 1977. He then returned to the Fleet Marine Force and was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he again served as a rifle company commander with A Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. Upon his promotion to the rank of Major, he was reassigned as the Logistics Officer for Regimental Landing Team 2, 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade. From 1981 to 1982, he served as Military Assistant to the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, then as Assistant for Interagency Matters to the Executive Secretary for the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. After graduation from the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. in 1985, he returned to the Pentagon as the Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, where he served until he was transferred to his UN assignment in July 1987. On February 17, 1988, he disappeared while serving as the Chief, Observer Group Lebanon and Senior Military Observer, UN Military Observer Group, UN Truce Supervision Organization. He was driving alone on the coastal highway between Tyre and Naqoura in southern Lebanon, returning from a meeting with a local leader of the Amal movement, when he was abducted by armed men of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The UN Security Council demanded his release but to no avail. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in March 1989, while in captivity. The exact date of his murder is uncertain, and he was declared dead on July 6, 1990 at the age of 45. Finally, on 23 December 1991, his remains were recovered by the Royal Danish Army attached to the UN Observation Group Beirut. His military decorations and awards at the time of his death include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star (with combat "V' device), the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal (with gold star and combat 'V' device), the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry (with silver star), the Staff Service Honor Medal, and the United Nations Medal. In March 1992, President George H.W. Bush posthumously awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal. In October 1997, the missile destroyer USS Higgins was named in his honor. In April 2003, he was posthumously granted a Prisoner of War Medal. The Department of Defense General Counsel initially blocked the award in 1998 based on the claim that it did not fall within the criteria established by Congress for the award. However, the U.S. Navy later overruled the claim after it was determined that the 1989 expansion of the eligibility criteria allowed for the award.