Colonel Howard E. Monroe U.S. Army (Retired)

Colonel Howard E. Monroe, U.S. Army Retired, of San Antonio went home to be with the Lord, June 16, 2010. He was born September 22, 1921 in Gotebo, Oklahoma to Ernest and Willie (White) Monroe. He is survived by his wife, Goldie Monroe; children, Dale Eugene Monroe, Linda Charlene Monroe, her husband Jim Green, Howard Wayne Monroe, Lisa Anne Liddiard, her husband Kevin; grandchildren, Jennifer Ash, and Seth Liddiard; brother, John Monroe; Nieces, Karen Coffmann, her husband John, Dalene Combs, her husband Chris, Nicole Monroe; and numerous other relatives. He was preceded in death by two beloved brothers, Ernest Dean Monroe and Dale C. Monroe.

He served courageously in three wars, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. It was in Korea that he almost lost his life. His jeep went over the side of a mountain, killing his best friend. Despite having a broken collar bone, crushed chest and lacerated lung, he climbed up the mountain and was rescued. While on the operating table at the MASH he heard the surgeon say that he wasn’t going to make it. He remembered thinking, “Oh yes I am. I’m not going to die.” Deemed not likely to survive, he was left to die on a bloody cot for seven days. He used a new pair of boots to bribe the helicopter pilot to fly him out to a hospital in Seoul. But his troubles weren’t over yet. After several days in the hospital he wasn’t improving and the doctor wouldn’t evacuate him. A kind nurse snuck him out to the evacuation plane on a stretcher, pretending he was a corpse. He spent the next two months in a Tokyo hospital, slowly mending. They told him he’d never return to active duty, but he walked out of the hospital with his footlocker on his shoulder, ready to resume his military career. Howard brought this determination and grit to everything he pursued in life. It served him well in his distinguished military career, which spanned thirty-seven years. Upon his retirement he had a second career with the City of Austin.

Visitation will be at Colonial Funeral Home on Monday, June 21, 2010 from 6:00 until 8:00 PM. Funeral services will be held at the 1st Baptist Church of Universal City on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 10 AM. Interment will follow at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery with full military honors. Anyone so desiring may

make a memorial donation to the Franklin Graham’s Samaritan Purse P.O. Box 3000 Boone, NC 28607 or the American Cancer Society www.Cancer.org. Please sign the guestbook at www.colonialuniversal.com.