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thedrifter
05-25-09, 08:51 AM
Honor for missing Marine

By Brian Falla/Daily News staff
Daily News Transcript
Posted May 24, 2009 @ 11:40 PM
NORWOOD —


Marine Sgt. John Kilkus is never coming back to town, but Norwood will honor him today with the dedication of a memorial plaque near his childhood home at 481 Walpole St., where his brother Bob still resides.

Kilkus is officially listed as missing in action and presumed dead. On Oct. 8, 1990, the 26-year-old was one of eight Marines lost when two helicopters took off from the USS Okinawa for a night training mission.

The two copters reportedly collided over the Persian Gulf off the coast of Oman, and none of the crewmen were ever found. The eight Marines were the first military personnel to become missing in Operation Desert Shield, which was to become Operation Desert Storm when coalition forces invaded Kuwait and Iraq two months later.

Veterans Services Director Ted Mulvehill said Kilkus was the first Norwood man listed as MIA since Vietnam.

"We don't know what happened," said Mulvehill. "It was a terrible tragedy."

The town has dedicated freestanding plaques near the childhood homes of 52 other Norwood veterans killed while serving during wartime. Under program rules, requests for corner dedications have to be made by family members and approved by the Board of Selectmen.

Kilkus' sister Carolyn Kilkus Stampfl said she called Mulvehill to see if something could be done to honor her brother.

"It's honestly something that never occurred to me, but I started looking into it and we decided to do it," said Stampfl, a Plainville resident.

Mulvehill expects roughly 20 family members to be in attendance today, and he has lined up local and military dignitaries for the ceremony.

"All of these are special and poignant in their own ways, but this one is a little more so because quite frankly he's never coming home, so we wanted this to be a little more special for the family," said Mulvehill.

Stampfl said Kilkus has a memorial stone at Arlington National Cemetery and is also memorialized at Town Hall, where all 102 Norwood men killed during wartime are named on a series of plaques under the banner reading: "They have won the right to be remembered."

The corner dedications give families a chance to honor individuals in a more personal way as the poles are installed with a small plaque at the top that has the person's name, military branch and date of birth and death.

The town has been dedicating corners since shortly after World War II.

Stampfl said the memorial corner will be nice since a lot of her brother's friends and family are local and will have a place to go remember him.

"It'll be really nice," said Stampfl. "He and his brother were very close and to have this right across from his house is great - he'll be able to see it every day."

Kilkus attended Norwood High and later Southeastern Regional High School before joining the Marines when he was 17.

Kilkus' memorial corner will be dedicated at 1 p.m. at the corner of Wilson and Walpole streets.

Daily News staff writer Brian Falla can be reached at 781-433-8339 or bfalla@cnc.com.

Ellie