thedrifter
10-08-03, 01:14 PM
Vietnam MIA home at long last
By JANETTE RODRIGUES
Not a day goes by when Houstonian Henry Rittichier doesn't think about his brother Jack, the only U.S. Coast Guardsman declared missing in action in Vietnam.
Rittichier was 25 when two Coast Guardsmen came to his parents' door in Barberton, Ohio, to tell them the HH-3E "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter piloted by Lt. Jack C. Rittichier, 34, had been shot down during a rescue mission in June 1968.
"I was preparing a meal with my wife," Rittichier recalled Tuesday from Washington, D.C. "I thought a mistake was made."
On Monday, he and his family stood beside his brother's flag-draped casket at Arlington National Cemetery's Coast Guard Hill. The hill overlooks the Pentagon, a part of the cemetery usually reserved for senior officers.
"There is not a word in the dictionary to describe what happened yesterday," Rittichier said of the ceremony. "You would have to put a number of words together -- awe-inspiring, relief, incredible, sad."
Since his brother went on that final mission to rescue a U.S. pilot trapped behind enemy lines with a broken leg, Rittichier moved to Texas in 1975 to work at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, raised a family, divorced and started a manufacturing business.
While he gave up the dream his brother was still alive, the retired senior scientific instrument maker held on to his hopes he would be found.
"I prayed every day," Rittichier said. "They gave us the news this year he had been brought back to Hawaii for identification."
It was, he said, like going back to that day in 1968 when they learned his brother and his three-man Air Force crew were downed and their remains could not be recovered.
In May 2002, U.S. officials received information about a crash in Laos, about nine miles from where Rittichier's helicopter was seen going down. The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii identified the remains recovered from the wreckage as those of Rittichier and his crew.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was among those who attended Rittichier's funeral. Six white horses then pulled the casket on a black caisson during a half-mile procession to the grave site.
During a reception later, Henry Rittichier was humbled when several women gave him MIA bracelets inscribed with his brother's name.
"He was a role model for me; he was 9 years older than I was," Rittichier said. "I was in awe of him; he was my hero."
Jack Rittichier grew up to become captain of the 1955 Kent State University football team and fly bombers for the Air Force and helicopters on search-and-rescue missions for the Coast Guard.
During a military career that started with the Air Force and ended with the Coast Guard Reserve, he was awarded three Distinguished Flying Cross Medals and four Air Medals. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart.
The Coast Guard Web site said Rittichier received one of the Air Medals in 1967 as co-pilot during a dangerous snowstorm to save the crew of the Nordmeer, a West German vessel grounded on a shoal in Lake Huron. Soon after the eight crewmen were saved, the Nordmeer broke apart and sank.
Two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam as part of a Coast Guard-Air Force aviator exchange program, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying through heavy enemy fire to save four Army fliers.
Other rescue missions, and medals, followed.
Henry Rittichier, now 60, is still devastated by Monday's ceremony and the outpouring of love from family members he hasn't seen for 30 years and strangers who have created Web sites dedicated to his brother.
In 2001, Rittichier lost a number of family heirlooms to Tropical Storm Allison's floodwaters, including some precious keepsakes connected to his brother.
"I have some photos of him and his official Coast Guard cuff links," Rittichier said. Everything else of his brother was ruined.
Now, he has the MIA bracelets and memories of a seven-member rifle party firing a three-volley salute, a Coast Guard helicopter fly-by and a bugler playing taps for the brother who was his "hero on earth."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Support Our Soldiers"
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
United We Stand
God Bless America
*****
Were it not for the brave,
there would be no Land of the Free!
Remember our POW/MIA's
I'll never forget!
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
By JANETTE RODRIGUES
Not a day goes by when Houstonian Henry Rittichier doesn't think about his brother Jack, the only U.S. Coast Guardsman declared missing in action in Vietnam.
Rittichier was 25 when two Coast Guardsmen came to his parents' door in Barberton, Ohio, to tell them the HH-3E "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter piloted by Lt. Jack C. Rittichier, 34, had been shot down during a rescue mission in June 1968.
"I was preparing a meal with my wife," Rittichier recalled Tuesday from Washington, D.C. "I thought a mistake was made."
On Monday, he and his family stood beside his brother's flag-draped casket at Arlington National Cemetery's Coast Guard Hill. The hill overlooks the Pentagon, a part of the cemetery usually reserved for senior officers.
"There is not a word in the dictionary to describe what happened yesterday," Rittichier said of the ceremony. "You would have to put a number of words together -- awe-inspiring, relief, incredible, sad."
Since his brother went on that final mission to rescue a U.S. pilot trapped behind enemy lines with a broken leg, Rittichier moved to Texas in 1975 to work at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, raised a family, divorced and started a manufacturing business.
While he gave up the dream his brother was still alive, the retired senior scientific instrument maker held on to his hopes he would be found.
"I prayed every day," Rittichier said. "They gave us the news this year he had been brought back to Hawaii for identification."
It was, he said, like going back to that day in 1968 when they learned his brother and his three-man Air Force crew were downed and their remains could not be recovered.
In May 2002, U.S. officials received information about a crash in Laos, about nine miles from where Rittichier's helicopter was seen going down. The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii identified the remains recovered from the wreckage as those of Rittichier and his crew.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was among those who attended Rittichier's funeral. Six white horses then pulled the casket on a black caisson during a half-mile procession to the grave site.
During a reception later, Henry Rittichier was humbled when several women gave him MIA bracelets inscribed with his brother's name.
"He was a role model for me; he was 9 years older than I was," Rittichier said. "I was in awe of him; he was my hero."
Jack Rittichier grew up to become captain of the 1955 Kent State University football team and fly bombers for the Air Force and helicopters on search-and-rescue missions for the Coast Guard.
During a military career that started with the Air Force and ended with the Coast Guard Reserve, he was awarded three Distinguished Flying Cross Medals and four Air Medals. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart.
The Coast Guard Web site said Rittichier received one of the Air Medals in 1967 as co-pilot during a dangerous snowstorm to save the crew of the Nordmeer, a West German vessel grounded on a shoal in Lake Huron. Soon after the eight crewmen were saved, the Nordmeer broke apart and sank.
Two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam as part of a Coast Guard-Air Force aviator exchange program, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying through heavy enemy fire to save four Army fliers.
Other rescue missions, and medals, followed.
Henry Rittichier, now 60, is still devastated by Monday's ceremony and the outpouring of love from family members he hasn't seen for 30 years and strangers who have created Web sites dedicated to his brother.
In 2001, Rittichier lost a number of family heirlooms to Tropical Storm Allison's floodwaters, including some precious keepsakes connected to his brother.
"I have some photos of him and his official Coast Guard cuff links," Rittichier said. Everything else of his brother was ruined.
Now, he has the MIA bracelets and memories of a seven-member rifle party firing a three-volley salute, a Coast Guard helicopter fly-by and a bugler playing taps for the brother who was his "hero on earth."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Support Our Soldiers"
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
United We Stand
God Bless America
*****
Were it not for the brave,
there would be no Land of the Free!
Remember our POW/MIA's
I'll never forget!
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: