Re: Vandals Desecrate Ex-POW's Grave

Date: January 14, 2004

"Bowler prays for those desecrating husband's grave

Sheila GardnerRENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL


Secret Witness is offering $500 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects in connection with destruction of cemetery headstones at Lone Mountain Cemetery. Anyone with information is asked to contact Carson City sheriff’s Detective Robert White, 887-2020, ext. 1400 or Secret Witness, 322-4900.

Rose Bowler is so upset about the people desecrating her husband’s grave that she has turned to prayer.

Bowler, 75, stood up Sunday during Mass at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Carson City, steadied herself with her walker and asked God to forgive whoever has continued to disturb John Bowler’s final resting place.

“We should be praying for these people,” Bowler said Monday. “They need help, they really do.”

John Bowler, a survivor of the Bataan Death March during World War II, was awarded 10 medals and decorations including two Bronze Stars and a Prisoner of War Medal.

He died of cancer March 13, 1999.

Before he died, he helped his wife plan their family plot under a tree at Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City.

“That’s part of my life, going out there. I sit and talk to John, and it helps me,” Rose Bowler said.

She said vandals have made three visits to John Bowler’s grave.

The first time, they took wind chimes the family hung from the ornamental plum tree that shades the burial plot. Next, they removed or destroyed $3,000 worth of religious statues that John and Rose Bowler selected to mark his grave.

“That’s the thing that hurts so much,” she said. “He picked those out before he died.”

In the most recent incident, someone smashed a statue of the Sacred Heart placed by the Bowlers, devout Catholics.

“I really think it’s the same people,” Rose Bowler said. “I don’t know why they are picking on us. Maybe I am wrong, but this is just unacceptable behavior as far as I am concerned. People have to learn to have respect.”

The problem has not gone unnoticed by the Carson City Sheriff’s Office or the city’s Parks and Recreation Department that oversees the cemetery.

“Secret Witness is offering a reward, and we’re working with the sheriff’s department on a couple of other things,” said Steve Kastens, director of parks and recreation. “Almost all of our staff and I, when we go by, check things out. On my way home at night, I just pull in and look around.”

Secret Witness is offering a $500 reward for an incident that took place between Nov. 10-12. Vandals kicked over two hand-carved headstones that dated back to the 1800s.

“We didn’t get any information,” Kastens said. “It’s really maddening that somebody would do that. We’re trying to address it as best we can.”

Daniel Bowler, one of John and Rose Bowler’s six children, said that one summer day he went to visit his father’s grave and three teenagers were sitting on the marble bench drinking beer and smoking.

“It upsets my mother so much,” he said. “This is a place where my mother goes and other seniors go. If you let it go, it’s going to get worse. Don’t give vandals a place to call home.”

Bowler said he is concerned for the safety of his mother and others who visit their loved ones in the cemetery, on 40 acres at Roop Street and Beverly Drive.

He wants motion detectors installed or the cemetery gated and locked after the office closes.

John Bowler and his brother, Frank, enlisted in the Army on Dec. 17, 1941. In 1942, the brothers became two of the 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers captured by the Japanese and forced to walk more than 60 miles from one prison camp to another in what has come to be known as the Bataan Death March.

In 1997, Bowler was honored by the military and government officials for heroism and patriotism during World War II.

“My dad defended this country and survived the Death March, and we can’t defend the cemetery,” Daniel Bowler said.

Sheila Gardner, Carson-Douglas bureau chief for the Reno-Gazette Journal, can be reached at 885-5561 or sgardner@rgj.com. Her column appears Tuesdays.

Copyright © 2002 The Reno Gazette-Journal"