After 40 years, Cpl. Jim Moshier's remains are finally coming home.
Posted on 06/26/2007 1:24:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
After 40 years, Marine Cpl. Jim Moshier’s remains are coming home from Vietnam to be buried between his father and the son he never saw.
For the past four decades Moshier’s sister George Ann DeMarco and other members of his family have brought flowers to a bench at Hillcrest Cemetery, the only memorial the family had.
Moshier’s helicopter crashed in Vietnam on June 11, 1967.
When DeMarco learned her brother’s dogtags were found she pushed for a DNA test.
Months later, the results were positive, and her hopes were fulfilled — her brother was coming home, in body if not in person.
“You have these faint feelings that maybe it’s not true,” DeMarco said of her brother’s death. “It’s very hard to comprehend when that’s happening on the other side of the world.”
While in Vietnam, Moshier had been wounded twice before earning his third and final purple heart in the helicopter crash that took his life.
“I told him, ‘you can come home now,’” Bob Martini, the man who called Moshier his brother, told Moshier after he was wounded. “But he wanted to finish what he had started.”
Moshier was in one of the most dangerous details, reconnaissance, in the most heated battlegrounds, and those close to him say he would not have had it any other way.
“If Jimmy was riding a motorbike, he was going to be the one doing a wheelie,” Martini said.
The service
A 1st sergeant in the local Marine Corps reserve center is preparing to fly to Hawaii in a few weeks to pick up Moshier’s remains and escort them back to Bakersfield, said Marine Capt. Carl Northcutt of the center.
Services are planned for 10 a.m. at Hillcrest Cemetery July 18.
Moshier will be laid to rest beside his son, Eric, who was born just months before Moshier’s death. Moshier never had the opportunity to see his only child who was killed by a drink driver during his senior year in high school.
DeMarco cherishes her brothers’ letters, including the last one, which she received after his death.
“It was full of plans and dreams,” DeMarco said.
It is that unfulfilled potential of the stand-out athlete and East High graduate that seems to haunt those who were closest to him.
“If he would have come back, things would be a lot different,” Martini said. “I’m sure he would be a wonderful husband and a fantastic father and we’d still be friends.”
The crash
Moshier and 10 others were landing a CH-46A Sea Knight helicopter when it was struck by enemy fire, sending it into loops and exploding as it hit the ground, said Air Force Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Feeney of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. The command seeks to account for all Americans missing in conflicts.
A search team flew over the area the next day but saw no survivors, according to online Library of Congress records. They say the area was so full of enemy soldiers the team could not walk to the crash site.
U.S. and Socialist Republic of Vietnam officials interviewed Vietnamese witnesses in late 1993 and returned to the scene in early 1994, but found nothing, Feeney said. Then in May 2005, she said, Vietnam notified the United States that possible human remains had been found and in August 2006, officials matched Moshier’s DNA to that of his sister.
After further testing, Moshier was positively identified this April, Feeney said. Some of the others on board have been identified too, Feeney said.
The search continues
Vietnam Veteran Vernon P. Valenzuela, of Bakersfield, knows the importance of finding the missing remains of those who died in the war both to the families of the dead and their comrades.
“It helps the family with closure and it helps the soldiers to know,” Valenzuela said. “When you are over there you are fighting for your buddies. To lose people and not know where they’re at leaves a void.”
Valenzuela went back to the country where he was wounded to help recover the remains of the dead as chairman of the Veterans Initiative Task Force for the Vietnam Veterans of America.
“To us we consider them out brothers in arms,” Valenzuela said. “We carry them in our heart.”
After 40 years, Cpl. Jim Moshier's remains are finally coming home.
Thank you for your service and ultimate sacrifice, Cpl. Jim Moshier. RIP.
Welcome home Cpl. Moshier. Sincere thanks for your service.
There’s an ending to his story. Sad but beautiful! RIP good and faithful servant.
Thank you for your service to the United States.
SALUTE!!
There is a good video of his sister talking about him at the newspaper site I linked this article off of.
Thank you and your family, James, for your service.
June 11, 1967, I was a just graduated high school senior. It seems like a lifetime ago.
Thank God he’s coming home, at last.
welcome home
Cpl. Jim Moshier,
Welcome home. I never knew you. Infact, I wasnt born until 20 years after you served. But I do know that you are a brave and honorable hero. Thank you for your service and sacrafice. You will never be forgotten.
Now you can truly rest in peace..
God Bless.
Very sad,Thank you MARINE.
SEMPER FI,WELCOME HOME AND GODSPEED BROTHER!
Welcome back, Soldier.
Welcome home tears for Cpl. Jim Moshier. Prayers for his sister, George Ann DeMarco, and all of his loved ones.
There aren’t words to express the love and gratitude I feel for our military folks.
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