FREEBIRD
06-08-04, 03:17 PM
Subject: Ex-Vietnam War POW delivers soldier's remains 21 bodies returned home
Honolulu Advertiser
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Ex-Vietnam War POW delivers soldiers' remains
By William Cole, ADVERTISER STAFF WRITER
Ghosts of two past wars were present with their living legacies as remains
of American service members from Vietnam and North Korea were returned
today to Hickam Air Force Base for possible identification.
They arrived aboard a historic Air Force plane, a gray and white C-141
Starlifter known as the "Hanoi Taxi" - the first aircraft to transport
POWs to freedom in 1973, a trip that passed through Hawai'i. The plane was
piloted by Air Force Reserve Maj. Gen. Edward J. Mechenbier, himself a
POW. Mechenbier, 61, was shot down in an F-4C fighter over North Vietnam in June 1967 and spent nearly six years as a POW before taking his first ride in the Hanoi Taxi.
Today, 21 metal caskets draped with U.S. flags were offloaded two by two
and marched past by joint color and honor guards and loaded onto twin blue
buses for the short trip to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Facility at Hickam.
"I'm very honored to be part of this great ceremony today where we
recognize that Americans missing in action during the Korean and Vietnam wars have finally arrived back on American soil," said Mechenbier, who is from Ohio. "The focus of today's ceremony is really about the brave Americans we honor.
We should be proud of our great nation to make these efforts to bring home
our fallen heroes 30 years after the Vietnam experience and 50 years after
the Korean experience." Mechenbier, who is retiring, recognized O'ahu resident Nick Nishimoto, a Korean War veteran, and Jim Hickerson, a pilot who was shot down off Haiphong Harbor in 1967, was held as a POW, and was released in 1973.
"I'm so lucky I came back in great shape," said Hickerson, who flew
throug Hawai'i in 1973 in a plane similar to the Hanoi Taxi.
Teams from POW/MIA accounting command recovered the remains during the 77th joint field activity in Vietnam and the 32nd joint recovery operation in North Korea.
From Vietnam, remains were recovered from sites believed to include the 1968 losses of an Army UH-1D Huey helicopter in Quang Tri Province and an Air Force O-2A Skymaster in Quang Binh Province.
From North Korea, remains were recovered from the east side of the Chosin
Reservoir that were lost during bitter fighting by the U.S. Army's 7th
Infantry Division during November and December 1950. An additional seven
sets of remains were recovered from Unsan where the 8th Cavalry Regiment
fought in November 1950.
On Feb. 12, 1973, the first American POWs left Vietnam as part of
"Operation Homecoming." Over six weeks, more than 600 POWs were flown to Hickam on their journey home.
The Hanoi Taxi, which was used to transport troops to Kuwait last year, is
scheduled for retirement sometime this year.
Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Former POW recalls Korean War captivity; He wants neighbors to keep
believing for GI missing in Iraq
BATAVIA A prisoner of war in Korea for more than three years lives down
the
road from the home of a soldier kidnapped in Iraq.
Charles Leigh Whitaker, 74, has a message of hope for the family of Pfc.
Keith M. Maupin.
"You have to keep believing. They did it for almost three years for me,"
said Whitaker, an Army medic in the Korean War. "I was 27 months MIA, and
my family never had a clue where I was or even whether I was alive. I believe
he'll make it home. I really do."
Maupin, 20, was captured when his supply convoy came under attack April 9
on the western outskirts of Baghdad, one of many amid an insurgent campaign against supply routes around the capital.
Whitaker has had some sleepless nights lately. After praying for Maupin
for more than a month, the televised images of Nick Berg, the 26-year-old
Philadelphia man beheaded by captors in Iraq, jogged painful memories.
"All this, it's brought things back for me, for sure," Whitaker said
recently.
On July 12, 1950, Whitaker had been in Korea for just two weeks when his
regiment was enveloped by North Korean troops near Chochiwon, south of
Seoul. For the next three years, Whitaker marched at the behest of his captors, often traveling 10 miles a day. Prisoners slept on the ground, sometimes in subzero temperatures. They had few clothes, and North Korean soldiers stole their boots, Whitaker said.
Prisoners were given only a handful of food each day, essentially a glob
of millet and sorghum. After two years, Whitaker said he weighed about 80 pounds. "Two things keep you alive," Whitaker said. "You have to have faith. And you have to have a sense of humor. Which might sound kind of strange. But truly, the only way I made it through: You have to laugh about it. You'd be
surprised. If you look hard enough you can find funny things."
In August 1953, after 37 months and 14 days as a prisoner of war, Whitaker
was turned over to the Americans. He was among the first prisoners
captured in Korea and one of the last returned to the Americans.
For decades Whitaker wouldn't talk about his experiences, and he was
tormented by nightmares. He's lived for 46 years in this town about 15
miles east of Cincinnati, now awash in yellow ribbons for Maupin.
But he feels Maupin's capture and Berg's killing make it a fitting time to
reflect on his experience as a POW. "Going through all this renewed my faith," Whitaker said. "You find out who you really are. You become a man's man. You have no fear anymore."
When One American Is Not Worth The Effort To Be Found,
We As Americans Have Lost.
**REMEMBER OUR POW/MIAs**
REMEMBER OUR POW/MIA'S
FORGET??? NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREEBIRD
SGT USMC 69-76
Honolulu Advertiser
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Ex-Vietnam War POW delivers soldiers' remains
By William Cole, ADVERTISER STAFF WRITER
Ghosts of two past wars were present with their living legacies as remains
of American service members from Vietnam and North Korea were returned
today to Hickam Air Force Base for possible identification.
They arrived aboard a historic Air Force plane, a gray and white C-141
Starlifter known as the "Hanoi Taxi" - the first aircraft to transport
POWs to freedom in 1973, a trip that passed through Hawai'i. The plane was
piloted by Air Force Reserve Maj. Gen. Edward J. Mechenbier, himself a
POW. Mechenbier, 61, was shot down in an F-4C fighter over North Vietnam in June 1967 and spent nearly six years as a POW before taking his first ride in the Hanoi Taxi.
Today, 21 metal caskets draped with U.S. flags were offloaded two by two
and marched past by joint color and honor guards and loaded onto twin blue
buses for the short trip to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Facility at Hickam.
"I'm very honored to be part of this great ceremony today where we
recognize that Americans missing in action during the Korean and Vietnam wars have finally arrived back on American soil," said Mechenbier, who is from Ohio. "The focus of today's ceremony is really about the brave Americans we honor.
We should be proud of our great nation to make these efforts to bring home
our fallen heroes 30 years after the Vietnam experience and 50 years after
the Korean experience." Mechenbier, who is retiring, recognized O'ahu resident Nick Nishimoto, a Korean War veteran, and Jim Hickerson, a pilot who was shot down off Haiphong Harbor in 1967, was held as a POW, and was released in 1973.
"I'm so lucky I came back in great shape," said Hickerson, who flew
throug Hawai'i in 1973 in a plane similar to the Hanoi Taxi.
Teams from POW/MIA accounting command recovered the remains during the 77th joint field activity in Vietnam and the 32nd joint recovery operation in North Korea.
From Vietnam, remains were recovered from sites believed to include the 1968 losses of an Army UH-1D Huey helicopter in Quang Tri Province and an Air Force O-2A Skymaster in Quang Binh Province.
From North Korea, remains were recovered from the east side of the Chosin
Reservoir that were lost during bitter fighting by the U.S. Army's 7th
Infantry Division during November and December 1950. An additional seven
sets of remains were recovered from Unsan where the 8th Cavalry Regiment
fought in November 1950.
On Feb. 12, 1973, the first American POWs left Vietnam as part of
"Operation Homecoming." Over six weeks, more than 600 POWs were flown to Hickam on their journey home.
The Hanoi Taxi, which was used to transport troops to Kuwait last year, is
scheduled for retirement sometime this year.
Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Former POW recalls Korean War captivity; He wants neighbors to keep
believing for GI missing in Iraq
BATAVIA A prisoner of war in Korea for more than three years lives down
the
road from the home of a soldier kidnapped in Iraq.
Charles Leigh Whitaker, 74, has a message of hope for the family of Pfc.
Keith M. Maupin.
"You have to keep believing. They did it for almost three years for me,"
said Whitaker, an Army medic in the Korean War. "I was 27 months MIA, and
my family never had a clue where I was or even whether I was alive. I believe
he'll make it home. I really do."
Maupin, 20, was captured when his supply convoy came under attack April 9
on the western outskirts of Baghdad, one of many amid an insurgent campaign against supply routes around the capital.
Whitaker has had some sleepless nights lately. After praying for Maupin
for more than a month, the televised images of Nick Berg, the 26-year-old
Philadelphia man beheaded by captors in Iraq, jogged painful memories.
"All this, it's brought things back for me, for sure," Whitaker said
recently.
On July 12, 1950, Whitaker had been in Korea for just two weeks when his
regiment was enveloped by North Korean troops near Chochiwon, south of
Seoul. For the next three years, Whitaker marched at the behest of his captors, often traveling 10 miles a day. Prisoners slept on the ground, sometimes in subzero temperatures. They had few clothes, and North Korean soldiers stole their boots, Whitaker said.
Prisoners were given only a handful of food each day, essentially a glob
of millet and sorghum. After two years, Whitaker said he weighed about 80 pounds. "Two things keep you alive," Whitaker said. "You have to have faith. And you have to have a sense of humor. Which might sound kind of strange. But truly, the only way I made it through: You have to laugh about it. You'd be
surprised. If you look hard enough you can find funny things."
In August 1953, after 37 months and 14 days as a prisoner of war, Whitaker
was turned over to the Americans. He was among the first prisoners
captured in Korea and one of the last returned to the Americans.
For decades Whitaker wouldn't talk about his experiences, and he was
tormented by nightmares. He's lived for 46 years in this town about 15
miles east of Cincinnati, now awash in yellow ribbons for Maupin.
But he feels Maupin's capture and Berg's killing make it a fitting time to
reflect on his experience as a POW. "Going through all this renewed my faith," Whitaker said. "You find out who you really are. You become a man's man. You have no fear anymore."
When One American Is Not Worth The Effort To Be Found,
We As Americans Have Lost.
**REMEMBER OUR POW/MIAs**
REMEMBER OUR POW/MIA'S
FORGET??? NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREEBIRD
SGT USMC 69-76