Group of well-wishers, family and friends meet to celebrate Marine
| Wednesday, Jul 18 2007 9:25 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 18 2007 9:45 PM
It was a different kind of hurt 40 years ago when Jim Moshier's family was told the 23-year-old Marine corporal was missing in action and presumed killed in Vietnam.
Photos:
A Marine honor guard carries Cpl. Jim Moshier, out of the chapel at Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mortuary Wednesday afternoon before his burial.
Cpl. Jim Moshier
Eyewitness accounts were clear: The helicopter he was in was struck by enemy fire and crashed on June 11, 1967. The fighting was so intense, none of the bodies of the men on board the Sea Knight helicopter could be recovered.
But with no physical remains of their adored son and brother to lay to rest, how could his loved ones truly say goodbye?
Family members, friends and hundreds of veterans and well-wishers were finally given that chance Wednesday when Cpl. Moshier's remains, which had lain unidentified in Vietnam for nearly 40 years, were laid to rest at Hillcrest Memorial Park & Mortuary in Bakersfield.
"I didn't think at that time he was actually gone," George Ann DeMarco, Jim's sister, recalled of those early years. "I held hope in my heart that he would show up -- someday."
At the memorial park in Bakersfield, the 300-person chapel was nearly filled to capacity, with hundreds more gathered outside. POW/MIA flags, Marine Corps flags and especially American flags were everywhere.
Scores of military veterans, most of whom never knew Moshier, came to celebrate his life and support his family.
"I'm here to celebrate the homecoming of one of our brothers," said Vietnam veteran SimbaWiley Roberts, of Pine Mountain Club. "I believe anytime someone is killed facing the enemy, they will never die as long as we remember them with honor."
News reporters were not allowed inside the chapel or near the graveside service. As a result, remarks made by speakers could not be recorded.
However, afterward Tom Moshier, Jim's older brother, described a video played in the chapel that highlighted Jim's glory days as a talented wrestler and boxer. And letters from his commanding officers were read aloud to the gathering.
"They were pretty revealing about the kind of person he was," Tom said.
At just before noon, the Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle group that attends military funerals to honor fallen comrades, formed two columns between the chapel and the graveside.
As a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" an honor guard of military pallbearers bore the casket home. Family members came next followed by representatives from the California Highway Patrol, Kern County Sheriff's Department, the Bakersfield Police Department and veterans service organizations.
After a short graveside service, the Stars and Stripes were carefully folded and presented with respect to the family. A lone bugler played taps.
Tom Moshier remembered his brother as a mischievous type, not above playing the occasional prank or challenging his big brother to a wrestling match.
Unfortunately for Jim, Tom outweighed him by a wide margin.
"I'd just grab hold of him and sort of fall to the ground," Tom remembered with a laugh. It frustrated Jim to no end.
Tom also remembered the pain, not only of losing a brother but of losing his brother's son. Jim's widow, Jan Lundy, has long since remarried, but she gave birth to the couple's only child, Eric, in April 1967, just two months before Jim was killed.
On Wednesday, the father was laid to rest beside the son he never knew. Eric was killed by a drunken driver during his senior year in high school.
"That's a hard thing," Tom Moshier said.
Vietnam veteran Mario Muniz of Bakersfield recalled meeting Jim Moshier's niece not long after Moshier was lost in action.
"When I heard on the news that his remains were being returned, I had this feeling of gladness," he said. "It's hard to describe. I'm just happy he's finally home."
It was a long road. Between 1993 and 1994, Vietnamese teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, conducted two surveys of the site, and interviewed several Vietnamese citizens who said they witnessed the crash, according to a release from the Department of Defense. Two of the citizens claimed to have seen bone fragments while scavenging the site years earlier. The teams found small pieces of wreckage, but no human remains.
Then in May 2005, U.S. officials were notified that possible human remains were present at a district security compound in Quang Tri province. The Vietnamese reported they confiscated the remains and other items, including Moshier's identification tag, from a Vietnamese citizen in 1996. The remains were then buried in the security compound, but the ID tag and other items had supposedly been lost over the years. Later that month, a team excavated the secondary burial site in the security compound and recovered a box containing human remains.
DeMarco said she pushed the government for DNA tests.
"We finally have closure," she said. "We were able to bring Jim home."
Copyright © 2007 The Bakersfield Californian
