Marine Lance Cpl. Abram L. Howard

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Lance Cpl. Abram L. Howard, 21, of Williamsport, Pa.

LCpl Howard was assigned to Headquarters and Service Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, Marine Forces Reserve, based out of North Versailles, Pa.; died July 27, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province.

Lance Cpl. Abram L. Howard, 21, of Old Lycoming Township was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan.

Gov. Ed Rendell has ordered that all U.S. and Pennsylvania flags in the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg and all state facilities in Lycoming County be flown at half-staff in honor of a Marine, based in North Versailles, who was killed in Afghanistan.

Lance Cpl. Abram L. Howard, 21, of Old Lycoming Township near Williamsport, was killed Tuesday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

The family of Howard, a 2007 graduate of Williamsport Area High School, told the Williamsport Sun-Gazette that he was killed by a roadside bomb. The newspaper reports that Howard was one of Williamsport's Hometown Heroes and that a banner with his picture flies on a street in that community.

Howard was a member of Military Police Company B, also known as Bravo Co., Headquarters and Service Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, Marine Forces Reserve, based in North Versailles.

Officers at the reserve unit could not be reached for comment.

Rendell ordered the flags to remain at half-staff until sunset Monday.

Williamsport Marine killed in Afghanistan

A Marine lance corporal from Williamsport, scheduled to come home from Afghanistan in late August, was killed Tuesday while on patrol.

Abram L. Howard, 21, died from shrapnel wounds, his mother, Constance Howard, said Wednesday. The family has not been provided any details about his death, but she said she believes it occurred in the Mazar area in the northeast part of the country.

Howard was a reservist with Military Police Bravo Company out of North Versailles in the Pittsburgh area. He had enlisted in the Marines in May 2007 about a month before graduating from Williamsport Area High School, where he played football, wrestled and was in the orchestra.

The third-generation Marine went on active duty before Thanksgiving and had been in Afghanistan since Feb. 5. His active duty tour was scheduled to end Aug. 28. His mother said she and her husband, Bart, planned to pick him up in Pittsburgh in early September.

Howard called regularly by satellite phone and said he liked what he was doing, but could not wait to get out of there, his mother said.

His plans when he got home were to leave the reserves for active duty and receive training to detonate explosives, she said. He was cleared for presidential guard duty and had talked about a career with the FBI or the CIA, she said.

Constance Howard described her son as well-liked with a lot of friends, free-spirited, charming and respectful. He liked to play the guitar, she said.

Lance Col. Howard is survived by his parents Bart and Constance Howard, a brother Alex Howard, and a sister, Olivia Howard all of Williamsport.

Marine Lance Cpl. Abram L. Howard was killed in action on 7/27/10.