Remember the forgotten
Husband's death was a mystery for decades
By Debbie Coleman-topi
It's been nearly 40 years since Maj. Samuel Toomey's wife paced the floors, waiting, in vain, for his return from Vietnam.
But, the memories of those anxious years came rushing back to Joan (Paul) Toomey Bland when she learned that the memory of her husband of seven years also lives on with others. Those include the members of a college fraternity.
Maj. Samuel K. Toomey III was remembered in October with a plaque dedicated in his honor at the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity to which he belonged as a student at University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. The plaque contains Toomey's photo in uniform with his dates of birth and death.
Toomey never did return, as his wife and family later learned, because he was killed instantly when his helicopter was blown up during a mission in Vietnam-Laos.
Toomey, an advisor of the Green Berets was on a top secret mission with the military's most secret, elite unit to serve in Vietnam - the special operations group. The unit, and its mission, were so secret, in fact, that the government denied its existence for years, thus denying Toomey's death. Toomey's wife and family were led to believe he was a POW-MIA.
And, although the status meant he might someday be released and return home, the thought of their loved one being tortured was hard to bare. Finally, in 1974, 6 years after Toomey was declared missing, the army changed his status and the initials following his name to KIA (killed in action).
The family, and his wife, finally received a form of closure when, in 1990, bone fragments belonging to Toomey were recovered and identified.
A book, "The Secret Wars of America's Commandoes in Vietnam SOG," by Maj. John L. Plaster, U.S. Army Ret., documented Toomey's death this way: "There wasn't anything bigger than a cigarette butt that hit the ground," an eyewitness is quoted as saying in the book.
Toomey Bland said although knowing his fate, after all these years, is somewhat comforting, knowing also is difficult.
"The hardest part was that the affect was catastrophic," she said.
Toomey Bland said that even after all these years, some people continue to ask about her husband's fate.
"The question is, 'Did you ever hear about your husband?' she said. "It's a blessing I no longer have to think of him as a POW. I know he's with the Lord."
© 2007 The Examiner
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