Korean War Era


Crewmembers Associated With This Loss BROWN, John C CRAYS, Edward M. ELAM, Boyd W.


GOGOJ, Stanley A. HARDY, Elmer E.


HUFF, JR., Emerson P.


KIEZANOWSKI, Edmond A. MAGERS, Dale L. MARBLE, Myron P.


MCPHERSON, Gerald W. MILLIS, Richard E. MORRISON, Jack A.


MORRISSEY, Raymond G. ODLE, Clarence B. PARKS, SR., Robert F. PESKA, Edward NMI PITRE, Ernest J. RIGGS, Roy T.


ROLEK, Alex NMI SELIG, JR., Louis, G. SPRADLEY, Glen L. TERNES, Peter NMI


TOMLINSON, Charles R.


CPL USA RCV 1LT USA RCV SGT USA RCV PFC USA RCV CPL USA RCV PFC USA RCV CPL USA RCV PFC USA RCV PFC USA RCV 1LT USAF RCV CPL USA RCV


TSGT USAF RCV CPL USA RCV


CAPT USAF RCV TSGT USAF RCV PFC USA RCV CPL USA RCV 1LT USA RCV SGT USA RCV 1LT USA RCV 1LT USAF RCV PFC USA RCV 1LT USA RCV


This information was forwarded to me by Jess Richey, B-29 Flight Engineer, Yokota Japan, in March, 2004. Mac’s official date of death is listed as


JULY 30, 1950; the day the bodies were recovered. According to his flight log, total flying time in JULY, 1950 was 43 daytime hours and 9 nighttime hours. His total flight log time was 775 day / 253 night.


One of many letters received follows:


General Headquarters Far East Command Office of the Commander-In-Chief 12 July 1950


Dear Mrs. McPherson:


The untimely and tragic loss of your husband has shocked all of us deeply. At the time of his death, Lieutenant McPherson was on an important flying mission to Korea, the successful completion of which would have resulted in invaluable aid to our troops and military objectives over there. Some measure of comfort may be derived from the knowledge that he died in the service of his country and in the defense of a peace-loving people.


I am confident that his devotion to


duty, at the cost of all he held dear, will hasten the day when ruthless aggression shall disappear from the face of the earth and free men everywhere will live together in peace and harmony. Our faith enables us to withstand the shock and tragedy of death. It is my


earnest prayer that Almighty God will sustain and strengthen you in this hour of trial. While the loss of your beloved one will be a hardship, we know that no life is really lost for those who have faith in God.


Sincerely yours, DOUGLAS MacARTHUR


At the time of his official date of death, it would be another four days before I was 2 months of age. And as with anyone or any family who loses a loved one in the service of their country, our lives were forever changed. My mother seldom spoke of my father. In fact, my recall was that it would be only when we took one of very few trips to visit our paternal grandparents, aunts and uncles, or when they came to see us. We were never close with his family following his death.


I was past the age of 50 when I learned that I had been raised by my maternal grandparents until I became school age. My sister tells of my grandmother washing diapers in a cast iron kettle on an open flame and using homemade lye soap. I knew I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, but it never occurred to me that they had raised me. My mother, devastated by what had happened, had been rendered


their name, and tell what their father did for a living or where he worked. As I listened, one by one, every student had an answer to this directive. As the turns advanced towards me, I felt more and more dread. By the time it was my turn, I was panicked, mortified, embarrassed and in sheer terror of having to stand up. Other than being able to recant my name, I had no idea what to say.


I


had no father. And it was not until this moment in my life that I realized that it was the norm for a father to be present in the home in the 1950’s. Not only had it never occurred to me that having a father was the norm, having to stand up on the first day of school and not knowing what to say, I began crying hysterically. I truly cannot think of a more horrifying moment in my entire life.


It is said that my mother never fully grieved the loss of my father. Her mother forbade her to show or express grief, as it upset my older sister. Our father was someone my sister had known, loved and lost at an age when a child has no idea how to handle grief. My mother took that admonishment to heart and took her grief with her to her grave when she died in JULY, 2000, almost 50 years to the day after my father’s death.


Our faith enables us to withstand the shock and tragedy of death. It


is my earnest prayer that Almighty God will sustain and strengthen you in this hour of trial.


incapable of dealing with an infant. As young children, my sister and I each had experiences in school that were as a result of having lived in Japan and having lost our father. It is said that my sister nearly failed the first grade, as she spoke more Japanese than English. My first grade experience was the most traumatic experience that I can recall from my now over six decades of life. In the first grade, we sat at


rectangular tables, six students surrounding the table. From the far side of the room we started, at the teacher’s direction, each student to stand, say


After finding these treasures that tell a story of a man I never knew, my sister and I have attempted and still do attempt, from time to time, to put the information in an organized fashion. Quite some time after I was grown and gone from home, my mother had a few of the military items framed and hanged them in her house. After she passed, I had additional items of note framed along with my dad’s picture and they now have a place of honor in my home – a tribute to the man I never knew; a man who had loved, lived and who gave his all in the service of this country. h


VETERAN FAMILY NETWORK h AUGUST 2011 17


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