News-Info-Alerts

Re: Missing In Action

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 28, 2003

"Missing in Action - by Dick Trail

MIA
By Dick Trail

“Your husband’s aircraft did not return to base from patrol. He and his crewman are presumed lost at sea.” The time was January 1942, six short weeks after the Japanese raid at Pearl Harbor. That was the message received by Mrs. Mildred “Mid” Hart, wife of LTJG John Paul Hart, US Naval Pilot. Paul hailed from Wakefield, Nebraska and Mid had grown up in Cambridge, Nebraska the daughter of a banker named Mousel. They met while students at the University of Nebraska.
Paul was then commissioned in the Navy and they had married following his pilot training. “Student pilots could not be married during their training, you know,” said Mid.

They were married on Sept. 2, 1941 before leaving for Hawaii. Paul was assigned to fly patrol aircraft from the airstrip at Pearl Harbor. Mid does not remember the type. Life on beautiful Oahu was idyllic until the Sunday morning when the Imperial Japanese Fleet struck the US Fleet to initiate WWII. Next morning, the 8th of December, Mid managed to send a telegram to her parents, in Cambridge, to inform that she and Paul were safe. She didn’t tell them of the terror of speculated future Japanese raids or the very real fears of an uprising by the ethnic Japanese already living in the Hawaiian Islands. Then Mid received the grim news that she already knew when Paul failed to come home that evening in January. Her husband was missing and his fate completely unknown—no radio calls, no reports from other aircraft or ships—nothing. The Navy mounted a search for several days but no trace of aircraft or crew was ever found. “Your husband is MIA,” the greatest fear of any service wife, had come to Mid and to Paul’s parents who still were living in Wakefield.

No longer could Mid remain in Hawaii so she booked passage on a ship returning to the United States. The ship took two long weeks to cross the Pacific, normal for that time. Back home Mid found a job in her profession of nursing. Not too long afterward a mutual friend introduced her to another Navy Pilot named Reeves whom she eventually married. Together they survived the war and continued happily together until his death. Mid eventually moved to the Heritage Plaza in Cambridge, a wonderful senior living facility, where she intends to live out her remaining years.

Several years ago, the very active Wakefield American Legion Post installed a granite memorial in their cemetery to honor their three former citizens who had gone MIA in our country’s wars. Missing to this day are two navy pilots from WWII and a Special Forces soldier from the Vietnam conflict. Surviving relatives for two of the MIA’s were easily located but Paul Hart’s widow could not be found. Further sleuthing by Wakefield Mayor Jim Clark and former resident Duane Tappe, now living in McCook, led to Mid. When contacted and informed that a special memorial had been set up for her first husband Paul she was grateful but felt that she was too infirm to travel to see it.

Enter this old veteran who possesses an airplane and was thrilled to carry Mid on a very special trip. On a bright June morning, Duane and I stopped at the Cambridge airport to pick up a slim, spry impeccably dressed Mid and Gloria Hilton her escort for the day. The trip on northeast was flown at low altitude where everyone could enjoy a bird’s eye view of the beautiful green Nebraska Sandhills. We landed on the nice little airport at Wayne. There we were met by no less than the Mayor of Wakefield for the ten-mile drive to “his” town.

First stop, the cemetery on the edge of Wakefield. We disembarked and stood respectfully while Mid gazed upon the polished granite marker emblazoned with names of three men who had made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. The name of LTJG John Paul Hart, born October 18,1916-- died Jan 30,1942, is inscribed in first place. Paul was the first casualty from Wakefield in WWII, unfortunately one of many to follow.

I can only guess what went through Mid’s mind. Did she recall the first time they met at a sorority/fraternity function at the University of Nebraska? How about their visit to see Paul’s family in 1939, the last time Mid had been to Wakefield? Did their tender moments together as they were married and moved to Hawaii to start an adventuresome future together come to mind? How about the prospect of children that were never to bless their union? It was a tender moment standing in front of a memorial donated by a people proud to honor one of their finest. All present were moved in a powerful way.

Following our respectful sojourn in the beautifully kept Wakefield Cemetery our party moved to a rustic restaurant in Wakefield for. Mayor Jim had arranged for one of Paul Hart’s schoolmates to join us and visit with Mid over lunch. Paul Burman, a character in his own right, spoke about Mid’s husband in glowing terms of his athletic prowess, musical ability, and scholarship. Paul was obviously one of the town’s youth leaders of his day. His accomplishments and assurance of a bright future was a source of pride for the entire community.
Reminiscing the short life of Paul Hart that day reminded me once again of the great sacrifice that our communities and country as a whole make when our finest are sent off to war and never return. I’ve experienced similar epiphanies when I rubbed my hand over friend’s names engraved on the Vietnam Wall and later when I stood before my copilot’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery. Never though will I know the anguish and extinguished hope of a widow such as Mildred “Mid” Hart as she gazed upon her husband’s honored name emblazoned as a symbol of a community’s love for a departed hero.

©2002 SWNEBR.NET (Southwest Nebraska News) "