How Do You Keep Your Heroes?

By Betsy Alexander
Historical Education Coordinator, The War Memorial

For one day each year we remember our war dead and those presumed dead. This year, that one day is May 27.

Those who passed were our honorable military personnel: men and women who deployed in times of war to do their part to defend our country. Some were underage kids, who lied on their Registration Cards and enlisted with their buddies anticipating adventure. Others were scared young men who dreaded hearing their numbers called as each new war ground on.

We received letters from them, usually redacted, and received weeks or months after they were written. They usually tried not to worry us, as they experienced the horrors of war firsthand. They stayed focused on telling their folks how much they missed home and reassured them they were okay. Parents could never know how terrifying war really was in a jungle, or a desert, caught behind enemy lines feeling alone or forgotten.

Don’t tell them about your new job either: Underwater Demolition Team, gunner, medic, walking point, tunnel rat, Graves Registration Service team. Sometimes the truth is best not known at home. Ever.  

They couldn’t know your actual location, nor hear about watching your brothers-in-arms being blown up right next to you in the trench. Why were you spared?  

Some died before they even made it overseas, during training or other mishaps. Grosse Pointe Farms’ naval air cadet Joseph Hudson Webber died during a training flight in Texas. He was two weeks short of earning his wings. 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Dewey of Grosse Pointe Shores was killed along with 17 other men in the crash of two military planes over Iowa. Both Grosse Pointe service men, both during WWII. One from a prominent family (his father was president of J. L. Hudson’s), one was not. Death did not discriminate; just ask the Brush’s, Ford’s, Vernier’s, Livingston’s, and Alger’s.  

Grosse Pointe High School grad Ens. Benjamin R. Marsh, Jr. had the distinction of being the first local resident killed in WWII. Ben was on the USS Arizona (BB-39) stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A destroyer-escort named for him, Marsh (DE-699), was commissioned in January 1944 and served in both WWII and the Korean War in addition to other important escort and training duties later. One battle star for WWII and four battle stars for Korean War service were awarded the ship. Ens. Marsh would have been proud.  

There were also plenty of Pointe service men who were taken as prisoners of war or were declared Missing In Action. We must assume that these brave men are most likely deceased and that their families may never get to lay their remains to rest.  

 Fighter pilot LTJG Richard H. Bridge went missing in action December of 1944 somewhere in the southwest Pacific. Pfc. Camille Vervaecke disappeared February of ‘44.  

 There are still 2,451 Michigan military personnel missing in action from WWII alone. 

 November 24, 1950, Cpl. George P. Grifford wrote his parents he was taken prisoner but was “Feeling fine and you should pray for me.” Less than a week later they received a wire that he was MIA, and later “presumably died in a prison camp.” His remains were finally recovered in 2016 and he was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery. Cpl. Alfred B. Lindley disappeared while fighting in Korea February 12, 1951; he was a teacher and WWII vet.  

 We are without 330 Michigan souls who arrived in Korea, but never made it out. They are still MIA until their bodies are recovered and identified; many never will be. 

 HN John M. Myers was a 19-year-old naval hospitalman from the Woods when he was killed by friendly fire January 25, 1966, in Quang Nam. 

 1st Lt. Peter E. Odenweller received the Silver Star for exemplary courage under fire as Infantry Unit Commander with C Co, 2nd Bn, 18th Inf., 1st Inf. Div. His death was June 30, 1966, exact location in Vietnam unknown; he hailed from the Farms. 

 Grosse Pointe Wood’s Sp. 4 Vincent F. Murphy began his tour of duty with the 196th Infantry BDE July 13, 1966. He stepped on a landmine in South Vietnam a little over two months later, September 18, 1966. 

 Farms’ resident and Grosse Pointe South High grad, Pfc. Thomas James Dion, would have been at MSU studying music and still playing in various rock bands had he not been drafted. He arrived in Vietnam May of ‘69 with the 101st Airborne and died when they were ambushed three months later on July 26; Pfc. Dion was 20 years old. 

 Lt. Neil Hayes, Jr. of 256 Kerby was shot down over Vietnam in his helicopter. LTJG Glenn Kalember, 1374 Anita, was killed while flying over his parent’s summer cottage near Traverse City; his horrified folks witnessed the crash. Two different countries, both Vietnam War fliers, both dead. 

 Lance Cpl. Michael Synod’s father, John, was a proud WWII veteran and longtime D.A.V. member. On November 1, 1968, Michael was killed by a sniper in Quang Nam Province. Susan Holmes, of the Detroit Free Press, wrote, “He was awarded more ceremony in death than he was in life.” At his funeral, politicians and numerous media outlets mingled with his grieving friends and family as the pastor reminded them, “A hero belongs to eternity.” This particular hero was just 18 years old. 

 Grosse Pointe Park’s Army Sp-5 Janis Miculs was listed as MIA, then later confirmed dead in Phu Bon in April of ’68. He worked hard keeping our Huey’s airborne while he was alive. 

 Farms’ resident, 1st Lt. Neil B. Hayes, Jr., was killed in a copter crash in Quang Ngai. He was with the 52nd Infantry, 198th Infantry BDE. His tour started March 21, 1970, and his death followed soon after on May 22. 

 Grosse Pointe High School grad Sgt. Kenneth D. Shoaps was killed while patrolling the demilitarized zone on May 23, 1969. The Woods resident was with the 506th Infantry, 101 Airborne Division in Thua Thien at the time of his death. 

 Another Grosse Point High grad, A1C James B. Young of McKinley Ave., was a passenger on a transport plane when it went down between Phan Rang and Cam Rahn Bay on November 29,1969. He died exactly eight months after his arrival in Vietnam. 

 48 Michigan residents were deployed to Vietnam and never came home, still officially recognized as MIAs and POWs by their country. Their final chapters are waiting to be written. 

 Operation Iraqi Freedom claimed Lt. Col. Joseph “Trane” McCloud of the Park, December 4, 2006, and Sgt. Peter C. Neesley of the Farms, December 25, 2007; it was a terrible surprise Christmas visit from the military for his loved ones to receive. 

Each of these Grosse Pointe men and teens had lives here before being called into service; some of their names may even be familiar to you. Are these former neighbors, classmates, friends, and relatives not worth remembering more than one appointed day each year? Some did not choose to go, and some did so very willingly; but they all went to foreign lands and did their best for their country under unimaginable conditions.  

Our heroes must be honored and remembered every day.   

“Time will not dim the glory of their deeds” 

--John J. Pershing, General of the Armies 

*Special thanks to Marty Eddy, National League of American Prisoners & Missing in Southeast Asia and Lisa Lark. 

To learn more about the history of The War Memorial and the Alger Family, please contact Betsy at  balexander@warmemorial.org to schedule a tour.