News-Info-Alerts

Re: 32 Years Later, Coming Home

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: September 03, 2002

"MIA ceremony marks sergeant's return POW group to honor servicemen, recovery of man after 32 years By Jennifer Brooks / The Detroit News
   
   National Recognition Day ceremony: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens, at the intersection of 12 Mile and Novi Road. This year's event will include a ceremony to mark the recovery of one of Michigan's missing servicemen, Refugio Thomas Teran of Westland.

   24-Hour Vigil Honoring Michigan's MIAs: Beginning at 5 p.m. Sept. 21 at the memorial. Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 154 of Mount Clemens and supporters will stand vigil by the memorial to all of Michigan's missing servicemen. Sixty still remain missing in action in Vietnam.
   

   NOVI -- Later this month, the nation will commemorate the 88,000 American servicemen still listed as missing in action from the conflicts of the past century.

   In Oakland County, the National POW-MIA Recognition Day ceremony on Sept. 20 will have a special poignancy, as the POW Committee of Michigan at last marks a return date for one of the state's missing servicemen.

   Sgt. Refugio Thomas Teran's body was recovered and returned after 32 years.

   The ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Michigan Remembers Memorial in Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens in Novi.

   The following day, Sept. 21, members of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 154 will begin their annual 24-hour vigil at the memorial. The public is invited to both events.

   Recognition Day honors soldiers, sailors and airmen missing in action from all the conflicts of the past century: more than 78,000 missing in action from World War II, 8,100 from the Korean War, 1,905 from Vietnam and 126 in Cold War skirmishes.

   The recovery and return of Teran brings the number of missing Michigan servicemen to 60, including six from Oakland County.

   They are Douglas Dailey of Waterford, Dennis Gauthier of Rochester, Martin Massucci of Royal Oak, Roland Pineau of Berkley, Thomas Riggs of Farmington and George Tyler of Royal Oak.

   "They're still out there and we want to bring them home," said Debbie McClain, a member of the POW Committee of Michigan and the niece of missing serviceman Roland Pineau.

   "Every day that passes is one gone forever, and you want to make it one where you've done something good for someone -- especially these guys because they can't do it for themselves."

   The U.S. government spends $55 million a year on MIA recovery efforts.

   Defense Department teams have made several attempts to recover Pineau, a 21-year Navy veteran who was serving his second tour in Vietnam when his E-1B radar plane crashed on a mountainside north of Da Nang on Oct. 8, 1967.

   Pineau's family is encouraged by the recent discovery of old surveillance photos in Navy files that appear to show the plane's wreckage, which may help narrow the search when it resumes next year.

   Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens is at 12 Mile and Novi Road.
   
You can reach Jennifer Brooks at (248) 647-8825, or jbrooks@detnews.com"