VFW Post 475: 24-Hour POW-MIA Day Vigil Starts 7AM Today - 7PM Ceremony At The Academy Building On Main Street

At  7AM today, Newark VFW Post 475 begins their annual 24 hour POW-MIA Day Vigil on Main Street in front of the Academy Building. I try and attend each year to join them in honoring my brother, Ed and all the POW-MIAs.

The POW-MIA Day vigil is on September 20^th.

We start at 7 AM and continue for 24 hours.

We have a small ceremony at 7 PM with the Post Honor Guard playing taps and rifle volley.

The vigil is at the Academy Building Memorial with is on Main and Academy in Newark.

(Willing family images of Edward Arlo Willing, USMC)

Emails I received about my brother recently ~

From: Snuffy Jackson
To: "nancyvwilling@yahoo.com"
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2013 7:36 PM
Subject: Delaware Blog Spot

Just read your blog spot unable to reply directly to it.

Minor correction, Rank was Lance Corporal.

While he traveled with 1st Bn, 27th Marines, 1-27, he actually was in Delta Battery, 2-13. He had been wounded while his team was out in the field with 1-27. But at the time, he was taken, he was standing tower watches with his team at a nearby base. 1-27 was not out in the field at the time but working from that base.

The official version and according to Brookhart now, is that Brookhart saw him being dragged off the road. However, the version that I heard while on the search patrol was that Brookhart said that he saw the Marine struggling while being pulled off the road. Brookhart now denies that. 

Another point that I wanted to make was that Ed had a nice safe job in Lima 4-11. When Delta 2-13 lost all those guys 10 MAY 68, Ed volunteered and was transferred 16 MAY 68 as a replacement. Lima Battery was on Hill 55 by that time. Hill 55 was a rather safe place. I know because I spent 7 months there. Since Lima had no FO teams in the field, Ed was a radio operator in the Fire Directional Control bunker there and very safe.  He deliberately volunteered for one of the most dangerous jobs, a Field Radio Operator. That got him wounded. At that point he may have been able to get himself back into a FDC job but may have chosen to stay witht the FO Team. At the Delaware ceremony, I think I made a very valid comparison that carrying a radio in the field was similar to being Flag Bearer during the Civil War. I volunteered several times to be sent to a unit where I would be a FO that went out in the field but I admit that I did not want to actually carry the radio myself. I was quite ready to get shot at but carrying the radio, I found frightening. I did get myself transferred from Lima Battery to Charlie 1-11. I was expecting to go out in the field as an FO but was assigned for 3 months to a tower. I did ask several times to go out but never did. I did lead a volunteer squad patrol once and didn't mind it at all. We did not have a radioman and I well knew I was the biggest target as the squad leader. That was okay because I wasn't carrying a radio.

Semper Fi

Snuffy Jackson

HQ 2-13, Echo 2-13, Lima 4-11 & Charlie 1-11 1968-69

And this one from Maureen Milford ~

 From: "Milford, Maureen"
To: "nancyvwilling@yahoo.com"
Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2013 6:24 PM
Subject: Your brother Ed

Hi, Nancy,

I've been meaning to write you since Bill McMichael's story about your brother, Ed.  I went to high school with him and I often think of him.  He was a great kid, very decent  -- just a nice person. I never knew he was your brother until Bill's story.

Back in the 1990 I wrote about another classmate of  mine and Ed's, Jake Weldin. I thought you might like to read what I wrote about Jake back in 1996, I think.

Wanted to let you know the Class of 1967 hasn't forgotten.


Maureen Milford
Staff Reporter
The News Journal
302-324-2881
mmilford@delawareonline.com

 

 Ed's empty grave at Arlington

 

~*~