News-Info-Alerts

Re: POW-MIA Memorial Dedicated

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 24, 2002

" POW/MIA memorial dedicated
Ben Haynes’ family carried forth his project after the veteran died.

By Beryl Chong
News-Leader

Gray clouds loomed over the Missouri Veterans Cemetery off Evans Road on Friday morning, bursting with raindrops.

But Marie Haynes believes her husband had a hand in holding them back for a special ceremony scheduled at the cemetery.

“He probably talked to the big guy up there to hold off the storm a while,” she said.

The ceremony was to dedicate the first POW/MIA Memorial Monument in the area.

Haynes’ husband, Ben, was in the Navy from 1948 to 1970. He started working on the project in April last year, but died of cancer in November.

Their eldest daughter, Patricia Maynard of Bolivar, visited her dad a couple of days before he died.

“He was sad. He wasn’t done with this project yet. He didn’t feel his dream of building a monument for POWs and MIAs would live beyond him.”

Maynard hugged her mother tightly as the 2-foot-by-3-foot granite tablet was unveiled.

“It’s so beautiful,” whispered Marie Haynes, wiping away tears with a tissue soaked with tears.

“This monument is for everybody, POWs, MIAs, and their families. This memorial is to say we care and Ben Haynes cared,” Maynard said.

Her father, a metalsmith who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars, “loved the Navy and he loved America,” Maynard said.

Ben Haynes had ordered 1,000 1Ï-inch-by-Ó-inch dog tags and sold them for $4 each. He’d also approached Wommack Monument Company in Bolivar for ideas on a memorial marker.

After he died, his family sold the dog tags he had designed with the inscription BRING THEM HOME at veterans meetings.

With money from sales and donations from veterans groups, the Haynes family raised $3,000.

A discount from Wommack Monument Co. meant the funds could be stretched to build more than one monument.

Three others will be at unveiled at veterans cemeteries in Higginsville, Jackson and Bloomfield.

“The Wommack Monument Company has been very generous,” said Marie Haynes. “Brad (Wommack), the president, could not have put the monument up for what he charged my late husband.”

“This is a small thing in return for the sacrifices others have made,” said Wommack, whose grandfather fought in World War II.

John Ruzicka of Springfield was one of thousands who made sacrifices. A member of the 38th Infantry Division, he was captured Jan. 6, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge.

Ruzicka was a prisoner of war for 92 days at Stalag 9B near Bad Orb, Germany. He didn’t think he’d make it out alive, he said. Prisoners there were dying of starvation.

“The Germans would throw the bodies in a pile and scoop them up with a bulldozer. I just kept thinking I didn’t want to die that way,” he said.

“There wasn’t a blade of grass growing that we didn’t dig up and eat.”

Ruzicka said he’s never seen a monument honoring prisoners of war and personnel missing in action and was thrilled to be part of Friday’s ceremony.

“This is the biggest honor I’ve had. I would like to shake Ben’s hand, but I can’t,” he said. “Marie is very brave in going ahead to making her husband’s dream fulfilled.”

Marie Haynes and five of her six children attending were joined by other veterans and former congressman Jim Talent at the Friday ceremony.

Korean War veteran Bill Brown, who met Ben Haynes after both had retired, said, “I think he’d be very proud. He’s probably watching.”

Marie Haynes said she felt her husband’s presence Friday: “Ben wouldn’t want anyone raining on his parade; that’s why he probably held the rain back,” she said, laughing.

At the end of the ceremony, a flood of raindrops descended upon the cemetery.

Copyright © 2002, The Springfield News-Leader, a Gannett company"