thedrifter
06-02-08, 11:28 AM
Message across the water
Wind-blown tributeto fallen Marinefinds kindred spirit
By Harold McNeil NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/01/08 7:40 AM
Marcy Ramsdell was tending to the horses Tuesday at the farm she manages in Colden when she spied the cluster of red, white and blue balloons.
“I just thought they were balloons from a nearby party that just blew in,” she recalls.
But when Ramsdell walked over to pick up the balloons, she saw that there was a plastic zip-top bag attached. And when she opened the bag, she found the boot camp photo of Marine Staff Sgt. Raymond Plouhar, a poem and a foam star with his name. It noted that he was killed in action June 26, 2006.
“I just lost it,” Ramsdell said. “It was the day after Memorial Day. I cry at taps. I’m a Marine, so it was very emotional for me. My whole family was with the Marines, father, sister and a younger brother.”
The balloons and the bag had been launched the day before, roughly 300 miles away in Michigan.
Ramsdell, who was stationed in Camp Lejeune, N. C., during the 1980s, also found a phone number on the back of the foam star attached to the balloons.
But before she dialed the number, Ramsdell did an Internet search of Plouhar and found that he had been killed by a roadside bomb in the Anbar Province of Iraq, and that he had only had 38 days left to serve in Iraq.
A 10-year veteran of the Marine Corps, Plouhar was an infantry unit leader assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. He had been part of a unit sent to rebuild schools in Iraq.
Ramsdell encountered another coincidence when she learned of his platoon’s mascot.
“That’s what gives me the chills,” she said. “His unit was the black horse platoon, and I work at a horse farm.”
Plouhar’s death had captured quite a bit of national media attention because he had appeared in filmmaker Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” attempting to enlist recruits in Moore’s hometown of Flint., Mich.
Plouhar’s aunt Barbara Ealy, reached by phone in Lake Orion, Mich., said her nephew was not at all happy to have appeared in the film, which was critical of the war.
Ealy said her family began releasing the balloons last year, on beachfront property they own off a private lake where the family was given official access.
“We do it on his birthday. His birthday was May 26,” she said.
So what was Ealy’s reaction when she heard from Ramsdell Tuesday evening?
“I was flabbergasted,” she said. “And [Ramsdell] being part of a Marine family was like, wow. It blew us away.”
Plouhar, who wrestled and played football in high school in Lake Orion, Mich., married his high school sweetheart, Leigha, who lives in Arizona with their two sons, Raymond, 11, and Michael, 6.
Ramsdell, who lives in Varysburg, said she feels as though Plouhar’s family has just been extended with the release of those balloons. She said a group of former Marines who live in the Southtowns dedicated their meeting this week to him.
“And they will try to keep in touch with his family,” Ramsdell said. “Now we have a connection to a brother farther away. To have had this [cluster of balloons] drift across the lake is pretty amazing.”
hmcneil@buffnews.com
Ellie
Wind-blown tributeto fallen Marinefinds kindred spirit
By Harold McNeil NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/01/08 7:40 AM
Marcy Ramsdell was tending to the horses Tuesday at the farm she manages in Colden when she spied the cluster of red, white and blue balloons.
“I just thought they were balloons from a nearby party that just blew in,” she recalls.
But when Ramsdell walked over to pick up the balloons, she saw that there was a plastic zip-top bag attached. And when she opened the bag, she found the boot camp photo of Marine Staff Sgt. Raymond Plouhar, a poem and a foam star with his name. It noted that he was killed in action June 26, 2006.
“I just lost it,” Ramsdell said. “It was the day after Memorial Day. I cry at taps. I’m a Marine, so it was very emotional for me. My whole family was with the Marines, father, sister and a younger brother.”
The balloons and the bag had been launched the day before, roughly 300 miles away in Michigan.
Ramsdell, who was stationed in Camp Lejeune, N. C., during the 1980s, also found a phone number on the back of the foam star attached to the balloons.
But before she dialed the number, Ramsdell did an Internet search of Plouhar and found that he had been killed by a roadside bomb in the Anbar Province of Iraq, and that he had only had 38 days left to serve in Iraq.
A 10-year veteran of the Marine Corps, Plouhar was an infantry unit leader assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. He had been part of a unit sent to rebuild schools in Iraq.
Ramsdell encountered another coincidence when she learned of his platoon’s mascot.
“That’s what gives me the chills,” she said. “His unit was the black horse platoon, and I work at a horse farm.”
Plouhar’s death had captured quite a bit of national media attention because he had appeared in filmmaker Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” attempting to enlist recruits in Moore’s hometown of Flint., Mich.
Plouhar’s aunt Barbara Ealy, reached by phone in Lake Orion, Mich., said her nephew was not at all happy to have appeared in the film, which was critical of the war.
Ealy said her family began releasing the balloons last year, on beachfront property they own off a private lake where the family was given official access.
“We do it on his birthday. His birthday was May 26,” she said.
So what was Ealy’s reaction when she heard from Ramsdell Tuesday evening?
“I was flabbergasted,” she said. “And [Ramsdell] being part of a Marine family was like, wow. It blew us away.”
Plouhar, who wrestled and played football in high school in Lake Orion, Mich., married his high school sweetheart, Leigha, who lives in Arizona with their two sons, Raymond, 11, and Michael, 6.
Ramsdell, who lives in Varysburg, said she feels as though Plouhar’s family has just been extended with the release of those balloons. She said a group of former Marines who live in the Southtowns dedicated their meeting this week to him.
“And they will try to keep in touch with his family,” Ramsdell said. “Now we have a connection to a brother farther away. To have had this [cluster of balloons] drift across the lake is pretty amazing.”
hmcneil@buffnews.com
Ellie