Lieutenant Howard Merton Coomber | UW Gold Star Honor Roll
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Howard Merton Coomber

Graduating Class of 1921
Served in World War II

Lieutenant
Howard Merton Coomber

Navy

Hometown

Kansas City, MO

Date of Birth

Location of Death

Okinawa, Japan

Date of Death

Location of Burial

Mount Moriah Cemetery, Kansas City, MO

More About Lieutenant Coomber

Lieutenant Howard Merton Coomber was born June 27, 1899, in Kansas City, Missouri. He enlisted and served in the US Naval Reserve during WWI. In July of 1942, Coomber re-enlisted and spent a year-and-a-half as a customs officer in Samoa before being assigned as commander of the Yap Island group in modern-day Micronesia. He took part in the Okinawa Gunto operations in the spring of 1945 and was killed on May 3, 1945, when the Marine Transport Vehicle he was on was hit by a bomb from a Japanese aircraft. Lieutenant Coomber is interred at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Coomber had been an attorney and operated the Coomber Realty & Investment Co., in Kansas City.