William R. Higgins
United States Marine Corps officer (1945–1990)
William Richard Higgins (January 15, 1945 – July 31, 1989) was a United States Marine Corps colonel who was captured in Lebanon in 1988 while serving on a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission. He was held hostage, tortured, and, 17 months later, he was murdered by his captors.
Biography
William Higgins was born in Danville, Kentucky, on January 15, 1945. He graduated from Southern High School in Louisville and earned his bachelor's degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A scholarship student in the Navy ROTC, he received the Marine Corps Association Award and was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1967. He later obtained master's degrees from Pepperdine University and Auburn University. He graduated from the Army Infantry Officers Advanced Course, the Air Force Command and Staff College, and the National War College.
As a lieutenant, he participated in combat operations in 1968 in South Vietnam as a rifle company platoon commander and executive officer with C Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. He was aide-de-camp to the Assistant Commander of the 3rd Marine Division.
Returning to the States, Lt.
The public source identifies “William R. Higgins” as united States Marine Corps officer (1945–1990). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Higgins and United.
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This entry incorporates text from “William R. Higgins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.