Obituaries
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Richard S. Starnes Lawyer
Richard S. Starnes, 61, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who became a lawyer in Northern Virginia, died May 21 at his home in Falls Church of complications from a stoke.
Mr. Starnes was an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Arlington County in the mid-1980s and then worked in private practice for a few years in Alexandria and Manassas before retiring early on disability related to his military service. He had post-traumatic stress disorder, his family said.
During the Vietnam War, he served in the Army and was a pilot on a Cobra helicopter gunship. His decorations included the Silver Star, which he received in 1969 after participating in a low-level strafing run over hostile territory.
"During the first target attack, Chief Warrant Officer Starnes' turret mounted minigun jammed, leaving his aircraft without a defensive weapons system," his citation read. "In spite of this handicap, he pressed the attack on the enemy unit, slowing and confusing its advance with extremely accurate rocket fire.
"He made repeated low level attacks on the enemy force in order to achieve the maximum effect with his aircraft's limited ordnance. The enemy continued a heavy but steadily diminishing volume of fire which finally ceased. A subsequent ground sweep of the area revealed 156 enemy dead."
Richard Sterling Starnes was born in Washington and spent part of his childhood in New York, where his father was managing editor of the old New York World-Telegram and Sun.
He was a 1966 graduate of Yorktown High School in Arlington. He received a bachelor's degree from George Washington University and was a 1984 graduate of Case Western Reserve University Law School in Cleveland.Early in his career, he was a reporter for the United Press International wire service in Richmond and then for a newspaper in Warren, Ohio.
His marriage to Deborah Watson ended in divorce.
Survivors include two sons, Daniel Starnes and Joseph Starnes, both of McLean; his mother, Nancy Starnes of Cockeysville, Md.; his father, Richard T. Starnes of Bradenton, Fla.; and a brother.
--Adam Bernstein
