POW-MIA

Updated: 11 November 2003
Music: Eternal Father - The Navy Hymn
(To turn off music scroll to bottom of page)
(Scroll down or click for lyrics, including latest verses)

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This very special Mi-24 helicopter is presently flying in Afghanistan, where it is no doubt causing quite a stir! click on thumbnails for larger view

Thank you for visiting my
POW-MIA Pages

We Sent them There
We Left Them
Now Let's Bring Them HOME!

Click above to read a speech given by Captain Dan Quimette, XO, NAS Pensacola, Florida on 19 February 2003.
Colonel Herk Swaney, USMC, Retired, gave this speech, with a few additions, at the Memorial Service, Veterans Memorial Cemetary, Santa Rosa, California on Memorial Day, 26 May 2003.

Click on photo to read about & see more photos of the ceremonies at Arlington

Homecoming of 2nd Raider Battalion Marines
Killed during a 1942 raid on Makin Atoll
in the Gilbert Islands
Page background & above photo courtesy of Arlingtoncemetery.com

Thanks to AII MIA-POW for this collage

Thanks to the 1st Battalion, Third Marines, Third Marine Division site for these graphics

Major James T. Egan, Jr., USMC
Lost 21 January 1966
South Vietnam

Click above to get a virtual bracelet

Welcome Home Col. Ramsay!
Returned 1 January 1998
Identified 19 July 2001

Lt. Col. Charles J. Ramsay, USMC
Lost 21 January 1968
North Vietnam

Click above to get a virtual bracelet

Visit the New Jersey Vietnam Memorial

Captain Edwin James Fickler
Date of Loss: 19 January 1969
A Shau Valley
South Vietnam

PFC James Joseph Jacques
Date of Loss: 15 May 1975
Cambodia - Mayaguez Incident Loss

The POW-MIAs shown below were adopted by my brother Steve Scherr
Please click on their names to visit.

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher
Status changed from Killed in Action/Body not Recovered
to Missing in Action on 10 January 2001
Click above to read on Steve Scherr's site how our government wrote off
Cmdr. Speicher and others that are Desert Storm MIAs

Look at the cosponsors on (S-1339) "The Persian Gulf war POW/MIA Accountability Act of 2001" which is called THE SPEICHER BILL. It is on www.greasyonline.com If people cared then we would have more co-sponsors on the bill. We have less than ten, yes less than TEN and the bill has been out since August 7th last year. If the POW/MIA groups just had their senators on in their states, we would have most states on as co-sponsors. If the veteran organizations had the senators on from their states, we would have most states on the bill. It is a disgrace since we are talking and not doing much. It is time for the people that have POW/MIA patches and will wave the POW/MIA flag to do something. Do not expect anyone to do it for you.

What can YOU do?? The senators are in their home state for two weeks. Call your court house and ask for your two senators offices in your state and call the two offices in your state and ask that they cosponsor THE SPEICHER BILL (S-1339). Have ten friends do the same. There is no reason not to co-sponsor. As it stands now most people do not care enough to work and
get their senators on as a co-sponsor. The senate offices are not getting calls or faxes. (Forget the e-mails as they do nothing).

CALL AND FAX IF YOU CARE.
If Capt. Speicher comes home can you look him in the eye and say that YOU did all that you could do to help bring him home???

1st Lt. Brent E. Davis, USMC
Lost 18 March 1966
North Vietnam

Welcome Home Lt. Davis!
Recovered 2 December 1993
ID'd 2 December 1997

Capt. Leonard M. Lee, USN
Lost 27 December 1967
South Vietnam

Welcome Home Capt. Lee!
Recovered 14 July 1999
ID'd 23 July 2000
Interred in
Arlington National Cemetery
4 September 2000

Capt. John W. Consolvo, Jr., USMC
Lost 7 May 1972
South Vietnam

1st Lt. Everett A. McPherson,USMC
Lost 18 March 1966
Laos

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

I watched the Flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then, he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform,
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many Mother's tear?

How many pilot's planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldier's graves?
NO ... FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play,
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "AMEN"
When a Flag had covered a coffin
Of a loved one or a friend.

I thought of all the Children, of the Mothers
and the Wives, of Fathers, Sons and Husbands,
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea,
Of unmarked graves in Arlington ...
NO ... FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!

This poem was written by CDR
Kelly Strong, United States Coast Guard.
and appears here courtesy of the
Consolvo Family
as does the graphic below

It Don't Mean Nuthin'
by Gary Jacobson © 2003
A wonderful and moving poem, please click on the link and give it a read!

      Marines ducking shell fragments at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam.
      This base was surrounded and besieged for 75 days in 1968
        Click on above photo to visit Patty Mielke's touching POW-MIA page
        This photo is from the Military Times Newsweekly Group Magazine

	The Marine veteran holding the U.S. Flag is Steve Bozeman. He was a sergeant and served four years in the Corps. Two of those years were in Vietnam as a helicopter machine gunner. He was awarded two purple hearts. He carries the flag to honor and remember those 58,000 servicemen who served and died in Vietnam. He stops at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for a 21 second salute to the men and women on the Wall. He has run the Marine Corps Marathon 23 times. Among Steve's many other running accomplishments he has been 12 times a Double Ironman Triathlon finisher and swam from the "Rock" in the Alcatraz Triathlon.
The Marine holding the Marine Corps flag is SSGT Mark Mishler, stationed at Ft. Lee, Virginia. He has carried the USMC flag with Steve for the past two years and is the 6th Marine to run with Steve since he started this tradition in 1987.
Marine Corps Marathon, Washington, D.C. - 22 October 2000 This photo was taken by Michael R. Scherr at the 15 mile point near the Lincoln Memorial.

Col. Robert A. Scherr, USMC
USMC photo taken 17 September 1964 at the time he was with the 1st Marine Airwing, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, n Da Nang, Vietnam
Click on photo to go to
Steve Scherr's Tribute to our father

Click on the compass to visit my page
chronicling my father's travels, with photos,
while he served in the Marine Corps

from OCS at Quantico in 1942 to Vietnam in 1965

Click on patch above to visit my page dedicated to
Sergeant Major Maurice Jacques, USMC
A great Marine Warrior and distant cousin to the webmaster

3/12 Network
Visit Tom Tilque's site dedicated to the 3/12

Visit Dale Summers' great site for the VMA (VW) 242 DT Batmen
Marine All Weather Attack Squadron
Capt. Fickler's Squadron

My thanks and appreciation to
Brigadier General John F. Sattler, USMC
Director of Public Affairs, Headquarters Marine Corps
for his assistance in obtaining information on Marine Corps POW-MIAs

A statement by a Canadian on the U.S. Marine Corps

This site, belonging to one of our Good Neighbors to North,
is truly wonderful - worth paying a visit
Has information relative to USA POW-MIAs as well as Canadian

The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page
How to add this link to your homepage

The Navy Hymn - Eternal Father
Original Words

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

There are have been alternate verses. These and their authors are:

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Mary C. D. Hamilton (1915)

Eternal Father, grant, we pray,
To all Marines, both night and day,
The courage, honor, strength, and skill
Their land to serve, thy law fulfill;
Be thou the shield forevermore
From every peril to the Corps.
J. E. Seim (1966)

Lord, stand beside the men who build,
And give them courage, strength, and skill.
O grant them peace of heart and mind,
And comfort loved ones left behind.
Lord, hear our prayers for all Seabees,
Where'er they be on land or sea.
R. J. Dietrich (1960)

Lord God, our power evermore,
Whose arm doth reach the ocean floor,
Dive with our men beneath the sea;
Traverse the depths protectively.
O hear us when we pray, and keep
Them safe from peril in the deep.
David B. Miller (1965)

O God, protect the women who,
In service, faith in thee renew;
O guide devoted hands of skill
And bless their work within thy will;
Inspire their lives that they may be
Examples fair on land and sea.
Lines 1-4, Merle E. Strickland (1972) and
adapted by James D. Shannon (1973)
Lines 5-6, Beatrice M. Truitt (1948)

Creator, Father, who dost show
Thy splendor in the ice and snow,
Bless those who toil in summer light
And through the cold antarctic night,
As they thy frozen wonders learn;
Bless those who wait for their return.
L. E. Vogel (1965)

Eternal Father, Lord of hosts,
Watch o'er the men who guard our coasts.
Protect them from the raging seas
And give them light and life and peace.
Grant them from thy great throne above
The shield and shelter of thy love.
Author unknown

Eternal Father, King of birth,
Who didst create the heaven and earth,
And bid the planets and the sun
Their own appointed orbits run;
O hear us when we seek thy grace
From those who soar through outer space.
J. E. Volonte (1961)

Creator, Father, who first breathed
In us the life that we received,
By power of thy breath restore
The ill, and men with wounds of war.
Bless those who give their healing care,
That life and laughter all may share
. Galen H. Meyer (1969)
Adapted by James D. Shannon (1970)

God, Who dost still the restless foam,
Protect the ones we love at home.
Provide that they should always be
By thine own grace both safe and free.
O Father, hear us when we pray
For those we love so far away.
Hugh Taylor (date Unk)

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
And those who on the ocean ply;
Be with our troops upon the land,
And all who for their country stand:
Be with these guardians day and night
And may their trust be in thy might.
Author Unknown (1955)

O Father, King of earth and sea,
We dedicate this ship to thee.
In faith we send her on her way;
In faith to thee we humbly pray:
O hear from heaven our sailor's cry
And watch and guard her from on high!

USS Liberty (AGTR-5)
Visit the site dedicated to her and to her crew

And when at length her course is run,
Her work for home and country done,
Of all the souls that in her sailed
Let not one life in thee have failed;
But hear from heaven our sailor's cry,
And grant eternal life on high!
Author/date Unknown

USS Cole (DDG-67
"Determined Warrior"
Visit Haze Gray & Underway
A site dedicated to the Cole & Her Crew

Additional verses provided by someone who found a site dedicated to the USS Missouri and its "burial" at sea. "On that site I found two more verses that I thought were an appropriate for your site."

O. Father as we sing Your praises,
Help us locate our MIAs.
Protect these loved ones day and night,
As we search on with all our might.
To You, on high, we raise this prayer:
"Lord, keep them in your healing care."

For prisoners of war we pray,
That they will see a brand new day.
When by Your power You restore,
Their liberty forever more.
O. Father, at Your throne we sing,
"Please, let them all hear freedom's ring."

Subject: An Unusual Marine Memo..

Not the typical office memo we're used to seeing in our somewhat drab, utilitarian work spaces

25 July, 2001

From Colonel ----
CO, MATSG-33

Yesterday afternoon around 15:10, some of you may have seen me standing in front of my office with a female Navy Petty Officer 1st Class. She was wearing her dungaree uniform. She was shaking, she was crying, and it was obvious that she was in severe emotional pain. You may have seen me hug her, you may have seen us talk for about four minutes until she turned and left the building. Four minutes is not very long, but those were four of the most eye-opening minutes I have ever experienced as a U.S. Marine.

The Petty Officer entered the front hatch of MATSG-33 looking confused and distraught. Thinking she was just another sailor looking for directions somewhere aboard NAS Oceana, I walked out of my office and greeted her and asked if I could help her. The name on her shirt said, "Stewart". PO1 Stewart remained silent and stationary, staring blankly at the deck. I asked her if everything was okay. Her hands started shaking and her bottom lip started to quiver as tears began streaming down her face. She just stood there, clutching her cover tightly in both hands as she cried silently for about twenty seconds before she could manage to get a word out. I was feeling helpless at this point because I had no idea what to say to her without knowing what was wrong. After she told me, I still had no idea what to say. I was just proud to be a Marine.

Through choked-back tears, PO1 Stewart told me why she came to MATSG-33. She said she was talking with four of her closest friend's one day while they were on ship last October. Their ship was the USS Cole. She said that it all happened so quickly. One moment they were talking as usual and the next moment, all four of her friends were lying beside her, and she was the only one alive. PO1 Stewart said the real terror sunk in moments after the explosion, after she saw the dead, soot covered bodies of her friends, when she realized that at any moment, another explosion may take the lives of more of her shipmates or her own. She said she was so afraid that the terrorists weren't finished with them yet. Then she saw the Marines. The Marines came and secured the area. The Marines came and secured the survivors. PO1 Stewart said that she knew, and everyone on the USS Cole knew, that the terrorists had got their one deadly shot in, but no more lives would be lost that day while the Marines were there.

I know that it was one of the FAST companies that responded that day. PO1 Stewart only knows that it was the Marines. I used to be an infantryman and part of the Marine Security Force, but that was five years ago. I have never set foot on the USS Cole or patrolled its surrounding waters. The day the USS Cole was bombed, I was sitting at a desk doing paperwork on a quiet Navy Base in Virginia Beach. Yet on an ordinary summer day, a Navy Petty Officer 1st Class who felt the explosion of the USS Cole and saw her shipmates die before her, walked into Marine Aviation Training Support Group-33 to find any Marine whom she could look in the face and say thank you to.

I was choked up and absolutely stunned by what I had just heard. I hugged PO1 Stewart and I offered to contact the FAST companies to locate the Marines who responded that day, but she told me that she was retiring this week and this was closure for her. By saying thank you to a Marine, she is ready to try and move on from her nightmare. I told her that I would extend her thanks. PO1 Stewart said thank you once more, turned and walked out of MATSG-33. I sat back down in the chair of my quiet office and continued my paperwork - with a much better view of the big picture.

From PO1 Stewart, formerly of the USS Cole; Thank you, Marines.

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