thedrifter
08-29-07, 01:52 PM
Last modified: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:57 PM CDT
Missing in action
By Buck Collier
America's Greatest Generation left a lot of its members on the battlefields of Europe and in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Virgil Tremalli was one of those who never came home.
And while Jim Tremalli, a local businessman, never knew his Uncle Virgil, what he did know was that he wanted to bring home his remains.
Virgil Tremalli is one of the 78,000-plus missing personnel from World War II. Working to find the remains of these servicemen are WWII Families for the Return of the Missing, a national organization. Also involved are such agencies as the Service Casualty Offices of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, as well as the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.
There was a gathering Saturday in Kansas City by the Department of Defense agency to update area families on the latest efforts to find these remains.
Jim Tremalli, who operates a construction supply company on Lackland Road, didn't know if he would attend that meeting. There probably wasn't a lot he could have learned about finding his uncle's remains. His quest already has taken him halfway around the world, only to return empty handed.
Small consolation, perhaps, but he is not alone.
"I've been in touch with the families of those (soldiers) who were part of my uncle's crew," Tremalli said in a telephone interview.
Virgil Tremalli's B-24 Liberator, returning from a raid on a nearby island, came under fire from a fighter plane and went down on one of the many small islands that make up Micronesia. It was an area that, at the time, was under Japanese control. Tremalli, who was 27 at the time, and his crew were taken prisoner.
In 2001, Jim Tremalli accompanied an Army group to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands - the final stop for the POWs. This is where they died.
Tremalli said he spent 10 days there with the Army unit, literally combing through the area, hoping to find something, anything to identify his uncle.
"We didn't come up with anything," he said.
As time went by, Tremalli said, he learned of a man named Ted Darcy, someone who investigated those missing in World War II. Tremalli contacted Darcy via the Internet and hired him to find out whatever he could about his uncle.
"For $60, it was worth a shot," he said, conceding that he didn't expect to hear from Darcy again.
But he did.
"To my surprise, he sent me about an inch-and-a-half-thick file on my uncle," Tremalli said.
The file contained documents and other items that had been marked "classified" by the military. That wasn't surprising, Tremalli said, noting that Virgil's family was never told he was captured by the Japanese.
"They were never told he had been taken prisoner, only that he was MIA (missing in action)," Tremalli said.
Within that folder was the most surprising thing of all - a photograph of Virgil Tremalli and a half-dozen other prisoners, presumably members of his B-24 squad. His Japanese captors took the photo.
According to Tremalli, the U.S. military apparently had never found a photo of POWs taken by the Japanese, making this image obtained by the investigator a one of a kind.
"Had I not been digging, we would never have seen it," he said.
The photograph that Tremalli has is not much of a link to the uncle he never knew. But it's more than what many families have been able to collect - something that Lisa Phillips of Windham, Maine, hopes to change.
Phillips is president of WWII Families for the Return of the Missing. She said the organization is trying to locate as many families of missing servicemen as possible and help them find as much information as possible about their missing family members.
"It is extremely important to reach as many WWII families as we can," Phillips said. "Time is running out for the Greatest Generation left behind."
More information about this organization can be found at www.wwiimissing.com. Phillips can be contacted by telephone at (207) 939-2051 or by e-mail at lphillips5@fairpoint.com.
Reach Buck Collier at bcollier@yourjournal.com.
Ellie
Missing in action
By Buck Collier
America's Greatest Generation left a lot of its members on the battlefields of Europe and in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Virgil Tremalli was one of those who never came home.
And while Jim Tremalli, a local businessman, never knew his Uncle Virgil, what he did know was that he wanted to bring home his remains.
Virgil Tremalli is one of the 78,000-plus missing personnel from World War II. Working to find the remains of these servicemen are WWII Families for the Return of the Missing, a national organization. Also involved are such agencies as the Service Casualty Offices of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, as well as the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.
There was a gathering Saturday in Kansas City by the Department of Defense agency to update area families on the latest efforts to find these remains.
Jim Tremalli, who operates a construction supply company on Lackland Road, didn't know if he would attend that meeting. There probably wasn't a lot he could have learned about finding his uncle's remains. His quest already has taken him halfway around the world, only to return empty handed.
Small consolation, perhaps, but he is not alone.
"I've been in touch with the families of those (soldiers) who were part of my uncle's crew," Tremalli said in a telephone interview.
Virgil Tremalli's B-24 Liberator, returning from a raid on a nearby island, came under fire from a fighter plane and went down on one of the many small islands that make up Micronesia. It was an area that, at the time, was under Japanese control. Tremalli, who was 27 at the time, and his crew were taken prisoner.
In 2001, Jim Tremalli accompanied an Army group to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands - the final stop for the POWs. This is where they died.
Tremalli said he spent 10 days there with the Army unit, literally combing through the area, hoping to find something, anything to identify his uncle.
"We didn't come up with anything," he said.
As time went by, Tremalli said, he learned of a man named Ted Darcy, someone who investigated those missing in World War II. Tremalli contacted Darcy via the Internet and hired him to find out whatever he could about his uncle.
"For $60, it was worth a shot," he said, conceding that he didn't expect to hear from Darcy again.
But he did.
"To my surprise, he sent me about an inch-and-a-half-thick file on my uncle," Tremalli said.
The file contained documents and other items that had been marked "classified" by the military. That wasn't surprising, Tremalli said, noting that Virgil's family was never told he was captured by the Japanese.
"They were never told he had been taken prisoner, only that he was MIA (missing in action)," Tremalli said.
Within that folder was the most surprising thing of all - a photograph of Virgil Tremalli and a half-dozen other prisoners, presumably members of his B-24 squad. His Japanese captors took the photo.
According to Tremalli, the U.S. military apparently had never found a photo of POWs taken by the Japanese, making this image obtained by the investigator a one of a kind.
"Had I not been digging, we would never have seen it," he said.
The photograph that Tremalli has is not much of a link to the uncle he never knew. But it's more than what many families have been able to collect - something that Lisa Phillips of Windham, Maine, hopes to change.
Phillips is president of WWII Families for the Return of the Missing. She said the organization is trying to locate as many families of missing servicemen as possible and help them find as much information as possible about their missing family members.
"It is extremely important to reach as many WWII families as we can," Phillips said. "Time is running out for the Greatest Generation left behind."
More information about this organization can be found at www.wwiimissing.com. Phillips can be contacted by telephone at (207) 939-2051 or by e-mail at lphillips5@fairpoint.com.
Reach Buck Collier at bcollier@yourjournal.com.
Ellie