Rolling Thunder®
NH-1 Newsletter
WE RIDE FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T
September/October 2012, Volume 12, Issue 8
AD M I R AL N I M I T Z
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
PRESENTED BY CARMEN LONESKE
Patriotic Night Flyer
Walk a Mile in
Their Boots Flyer
2
Officers
Mission Statement
Who are
DPMO&JPAC
3
Presidents Corner
Got Books
POW/MIA
GENERAL INFO
Fallen Brother Ride
ATAN Philip
Kendell Balch
SGT. Bowe Bergdahl Story (Repeat)
NEW PATCHES
Who are dpmo(cont)
3&7
4
5
6
7&8
A Little AF Humor
New Patches
POW/MIA Stats
Vigils
10
The Closing Shot
11
9
Really interesting, and I never knew
this little bit of history:
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS
Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every
thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry
and had to wait thirty minutes.. I went
into a small gift shop to kill time. In the
gift shop, I purchased a small book
entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor "
by Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941—Admiral
Chester Nimitz was attending a concert
in Washington D.C. He was paged and
told there was a phone call for him.
When he answered the phone, it was
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on
the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that
he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He
landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas
Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of
despair, dejection and defeat—you
would have thought the Japanese had
already won the war. On Christmas
Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a
boat tour of the destruction wrought on
Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.. Big
sunken battleships and navy vessels
cluttered the waters everywhere you
looked.
As the tour boat returned to dock, the
young helmsman of the boat asked,
"Well Admiral, what do you think after
seeing all this destruction?" Admiral
Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within
the sound of his voice.
Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese
made three of the biggest mistakes an
attack force could ever make, or God
was taking care of America. Which do
you think it was?"
Shocked and surprised, the young
helmsman asked, "What do mean by
saying the Japanese made the three
biggest mistakes an attack force ever
made?" Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one: the Japanese
attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out
of every ten crewmen of those ships
were ashore on leave. If those same
ships had been lured to sea and been
sunk—we would have lost 38,000 men
instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in
a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once
bombed our dry docks opposite those
ships. If they had destroyed our dry
docks, we would have had to tow
every one of those ships to America
to be repaired. As it is now, the ships
are in shallow water and can be
raised. One tug can pull them over to
the dry docks, and we can have them
repaired and at sea by the time we
could have towed them to America .
And I already have crews ashore
anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three: Every drop
of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is
in top-of-the-ground storage tanks
five miles away over that hill. One
attack plane could have strafed those
tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That's why I say the Japanese made
three of the biggest mistakes an
attack force could make or God was
taking care of America.
I've never forgotten what I read in
that little book. It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I
might suggest that because Admiral
Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised
in Fredericksburg, Texas —he was a
born optimist. But anyway you look
at it—Admiral Nimitz was able to see
a silver lining in a situation and
circumstance where everyone else
saw only despair and defeatism.
President Roosevelt had chosen the
right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could
see silver linings in the midst of the
clouds of dejection, despair and
defeat.
There is a reason that our national
motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST
Why have we forgotten?
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R o l l in g T hu n de r®
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
Page 3
ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER
1 OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
Joe Pepin
Bill Downs
SGT AT ARMS
NEWSLETTER
Tom Bennett
Steve Cantelli
TREASURER
SECRETARY
Janice Jolly
Robin Cavallaro
PHOTOGRAPHER
WEBMASTER
Ken Park
Pat McGhie
CHAIMAN OF THE BOARD
BOARD MEMBER
Scott Suchovsky
Darryl Cook
EVENTS CHAIRMAN
ROAD CAPTAINS
VACANT
Scott Suchovsky
BOARD MEMBER
BOARD MEMBER
BOARD MEMBER
Mike Desjardins
Steve Grundy
Tom Bennett
QUARTERMASTER CHAIR
LEGISLATIVE LIASON
Jay Robicheau
Steve Cantelli
Mark Willer
BOARD MEMBER
1st ALTERNATE
Patti Connolly
Rich Deneka
POW/MIA OFFICER
Marsha Bailey
Bruce Garry
2nd ALTERNATE
CHAPLAIN
Rick Smith
Richard Borghi
HISTORIAN
JUNIOR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Kyrra Robicheau
ASS’T JUNIOR DIRECTOR
Steve Grundy
ROLLING THUNDER®, INC. MISSION STATEMENT
The major function of Rolling Thunder®, Inc. is to publicize the POW/MIA issue: To educate the public that many American Prisoners of War were left behind after all previous wars, and to help correct the past and to protect future
veterans from being left behind should they become Prisoners Of War—
Missing In Action. We are also committed to helping American veterans from
all wars.
Who Are
Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
And
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) by Bruce Garry
Through pressure applied by the work of
The National League of POW/MIA Families and other organizations like Rolling
Thunder, by direction of the US Senate,
the Department of Defense established a
single office to oversee and manage all
POW/MIA issues. In 1993 the Defense
POW/MIA Personnel Office (DPMO) was
established. Today DPMO is a team off
civilian and military experts numbering
about 100 people. Their span of operations is worldwide covering all conflicts
going back to World War II.
for at the conclusion of hostilities, the
DOD accounting community becomes the
responsible agent for determining the
fate of the missing and where possible,
recovering them alive or recovering and
identifying the remains of the dead.
“When American personnel remain captive, missing, or otherwise unaccounted-
To accomplish this goal, DPMO develops
and recommends policy guidance on
For those killed-in-action, the accounting
community is charged with locating,
recovering and identifying their remains.
More than 83,000 Americans remain
missing from World War II, the Korean
War, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War.
personnel accounting, oversees the
implementation of existing policies and
provides the accounting community with
oversight and coordination. DPMO also
conducts research, analyzes information
and investigates the cases of missing
personnel.” (From DPMO WEB page)
In lessons learned it was decided that an
“operational” organization of field experts were need to conduct search,
recovery, and laboratory tasks. So on
Pag e 4
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
PRESIDENTS CORNER
Hello Everyone,
On behalf of Rolling Thunder
NH-1, our hearts and prays go
out to the Family and friends
of Jillian Marie Burris.
Many of you know Brian Burris General manager of Naults
Honda not only has been a
great supporter of RTNH-1
along with Dick Naults but a
great friend of our Chapter.
I’ve had to say this way too
many time this year, we need
to pick up our heavy hearts
and continue on with our mission.
ping Legion 730pm
Patriotic Night Epping Legion
Nov 10th 6 pm
I’m very excited about 2012
Patriotic Night looking forward
to ending 2012 with a bang.
Will be a nice gathering of RT
and many other Friends of NH
-1.
So please feel free to invite
your family and friends , everyone is welcome.
Well NH-1 and Friends hope
everyone survived Storm
Sandy..
Ill be at the National Conference Nov 1st – 4th so everyone be safe and have a great
At Boscawen / Walk a Mile
Boscawen Clean up Nov 4th
1030am – 1200
Walk a Mile Fundraiser Nov
4th the Alpine, 175 Putnam st
Manchester NH 4pm-9pm
Sincerely
Joe Pepin
NH-1 President
Nov 6th Chapter Meeting Ep-
GOT BOOKS
“GOT BOOKS” continues to be
an easy and great fund raiser.
What is “GOT BOOKS”? It is
an easy way for Rolling Thunder® NH Chapter 1 to make
easy money to support the
mission statement.
We need your help finding
another location (possibly in
Epping or Lee). We have filled
our 9th container this year.
BY
STEVE CANTELLI
We have to thank Karen in
Kingston (who sells on Amazon) and donates books she
doesn’t use to us. Also the
Madison Library and Jean at
the Moultonboro Library for
the donation of 800 boxes.
Thanks to the Methuen Lib.
We need your help now! Help
us to get more books and
help us to get another con-
tainer site. If you have questions please call Steve Cantelli at 603-918-6071 or e-mail
at [email protected]….We NEED
your help. Our current Container is at ECSI Route 125
Kingston, NH (across from
Reynolds RV). The new site
must be at least two miles
away from our box.
Boob, Wrench, Jon (taking picture) and Steve pick up books in Methuen
Pag e 5
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
P OW / M I A F E D E R A L L AW F L AG
R E QU I R E M E N TS
Federal law requires the POW/MIA flag to be flown
on the following days:
 Armed Forces Day, May 16
 Memorial Day, May 25
 Flag Day, June 14
 Independence Day, July 4
 POW/MIA Day, 3rd Friday of September
 Veterans Day, Nov. 11
Fallen Brothers Ride
P OW / M I A N A T I O N A L M O N U M E N T
Pag e 6
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
ATAN Phillip Kendall Balch, USN story by Bruce Garry
Phillip Kendall Balch was born
to Lowell and Mary (Putney)
Balch, June 21, 1929 in
Claremont, NH, though the
family resided in Woodstock,
VT. His dad, Lowell, local people called him Levi, was a
Pharmacy Clerk at the local
Drug Store and Mary raised
their two boys, the oldest by
two years, Edward, and Phillip.
Phillip would attend Stevens
High School in Claremont
during the World War II war
years to its end and then Occupying Forces in Europe and
the Far East, graduating in the
Class of 1947. In high school
he had the nickname
“Chimp”. He was a one of the
smallest guys in the class who
had flaming red hair. Phillip
was in the Drama Club his
junior and senior years and
was the Secretary of his Senior Class Student Council.
Soon after high school Phillip
joined the U.S Navy following
his brother Edward, who had
joined the U.S. Navy in 1945.
He attended Aviation Electronics School, in Memphis,
TN. A friend of Phillip’s at the
Navy school remembered him
fondly and that he was given
another nickname in the Navy, “Peeb”. Phillip competed
his training and became an
Aviation Electronics Technician Airman Apprentice (E-2).
be stationed on the USS Essex aircraft carrier, assigned
to Composite Squadron VC35, stationed off the coast of
the Korean peninsula in
1951, during the Korean War.
He became a flight crewmember of a Douglas AD-4Q
Skyraider, which had a crew
of two, a pilot and an enlisted
Aviation Electronics Technician Airman (E-3). This type of
aircraft was a dive-bomber
and Squadron VC-35’s mission was to perform night
bombing missions in North
Korea off the deck of the aircraft carrier. They usually flew
in pairs, taking shifts so the
entire night time hours were
covered to hinder North Korean forces to move men and
supplies by night.
On Sunday, August 26, 1951,
Pilot Lt.(jg) Loren D. Smith of
Minco, OK, and ATAN Phillip
Kendall Balch, age 22, took
off from the deck of the USS
Essex. In flight for five
minutes their aircraft suddenly burst into flames and
crashed into the sea. Their
bodies were never recovered.
They were the second and
third member that Squadron
VC-35 lost of 15 total members the squadron would lose
while fighting in Korea from
June 26, 1951 – March 25,
1952.
ATAN Phillip Kendal Balch
was awarded the Purple
Phillip Balch would eventually
Douglas AD-42 Skyraider that ATAN
Balch flew on that fateful day.
Heart, Combat Action Ribbon,
Korean Service Medal, United
Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal,
and the Korean War Service
Medal. His name has been
inscribed on the “Courts of
the Missing” at the Honolulu
Memorial, Hawaii.
Phillip’s father, Lowell Balch,
would pass away in 1978 at
the age of 73, in Windsor,
Vermont. It appears his mother Mary lived to be 95 and
died in 2000, in Claremont,
NH. His brother Edward died
in Manchester, NH in 1996 at
the age of 69.
Pag e 7
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl Story
At 0900 on the Tuesday morning of
June 30, 2009, at Outpost Mest, in the
Yahya Khail District of Paktika Province, Afghanistan, Company B, 1st
Battalion, 501st Infantry (Airborne)
Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team
(BCT), 25th Infantry Division (ID) conducted their Morning Roll Call for
100% accountability. It was at this Roll
Call that Company B Commander
discovered Private First Class Bergdahl
was missing. An immediate search of
all areas in Outpost Mest was conducted without locating the missing soldier. The next higher command Blackfoot Tactical Operations Command
(TOC) was notified of the missing
soldier. Blackfoot TOC then reported
the situation to the 4th BCT command
at Geronimo TOC.
The command issued a mandatory
100% accountably of all camps and
launched a search for PFC Bergdahl.
Military Dogs and a Pathfinder unit
were dispatched to the rugged mountainous area, twelve miles from the
Pakistan border, and had boots on the
ground within few hours. A Drone and
aviation assets were tasked and expedited to the area of search. Blocking
Positions were deployed on area roads
and known paths of travel checking all
traffic. A more detailed search of all
vehicles, latrines, bunkers, and other
Personnel Facilities was ordered for
Outpost Mest and nearby Outpost
Sharan. All of these efforts did not
result in finding PFC Bergdahl.
On July 2, 2009 it was reported the
Outpost Mest Commander met with
the local Elders to seek information
and request their assistance in recovery and learning the wellbeing of PCF
Bergdahl. The Taliban had asked the
Elders to be the go between the Taliban and the U.S. Military to work a
trade. The Elders assured the Commander that PFC Bergdahl was alive
and not being harmed. The Taliban
wanted 15 of their own held in American prisons to be released and an
unspecified amount of money in exchange for PFC Bergdahl. The Commander offered to request resources
to help the Elders defend themselves
if they would help get PFC Bergdahl
back from the Taliban. The Elders said
they would try, and they even attempted to contact the Taliban so that the
Commander could speak to Bergdahl
by Bruce Garry
but the communications network was
down so the call did not go through.
The last reported physical sighting of
PFC Bergdahl was on July 4, 2009
where he had a bag over his head,
wearing dark khaki apparel being
transported in a black Toyota Corrolla
escorted by motorcycles. Between
December 2009 and May 2011 the
Taliban have released five videos of
Bergdahl but there has not been
anything for thirteen months now.
There are reports that negotiations
have been ongoing for an exchange
W H O A R E D P M O & J PAC ( C O N T . )
October 1, 2003 the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command (JPAC) began
operations. JPAC has four permanent
detachments to conduct field investigations, searches, recovery, and laboratory
analysis: (Detachment #1) is located in
Bangkok and Thailand; (Detachment #2)
is located in Hanoi, Vietnam;
(Detachment #3) is located in Vientiane,
Laos; and (Detachment #4) is located in
Honolulu, Hawaii.
Southeast Asia. In 1976 the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) in Thailand was
closed and moved to Hickam Air Force
Base in Honolulu, Hawaii (CILHI) to search
for, recover, and identify missing Americans from all previous conflicts. In 1992,
Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA)
was established to focus on achieving the
fullest possible accounting of Americans
missing as a result of the Vietnam War. In
2002 DoD determined that POW/MIA
accounting efforts would be best served
The roots of JPAC began in 1973 when
by combining JTF-FA and CILHI, thus
the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL), effective Oct. 1, 2003: JTF-FA and CILHI
Thailand (CIL-THAI) was established to
joined together to form JPAC. Today
focus on the Americans still missing in
JPAC’s CIL is the largest and most diverse
forensic skeletal laboratory in the world.
JPAC reports its results to DPMO and will
receive information for investigations
from DPMO.
Through the efforts of DPMO and JPAC,
16 servicemen have been accounted from
January 1 - April 4 2012:
World War II: 2
Korea:
11
Vietnam/Laos: 2
Iraq:
1
OCTOBER BOO T PATCHES—CONGRA DULATIO NS
Jill Anderson (Left) and Paul Huber (Right) Receives their Boot Patches
Pag e 8
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
SEPTEMBER BOO T PATCHE S—CONGR ADULATIO NS
Dave Webster (Left) and Ron Boivin (Center Left ) Cheryl Vaccaro (Center) and Tom
Couture (Right) Receives their Boot Patches
OCTOBE R BACK PATCHES—CONGR ADULATIO NS
Kim Hebert (Left) and Bob (Boob) Bergeron (Right) Receives their Back Patches
SGT. BOWE R. BERGDAHL STORY (CONT )
and a fairly reliable source that Bergdahl is still alive.
PFC Bergdahl was last seen at his
firing position performing guard duty
on Outpost Mest. There has been
much speculation in how he disappeared in the press. Though the Defense Department has not officially
reported anything on this subject,
there was reported intercepted radio
traffic of the Taliban bragging and the
added insult how they captured Bergdahl with his pants down in a latrine. If
this is true, it would explain why he
didn’t have his personal weapon with
him at the time of his capture, as its
common practice to ask a buddy to
watch your weapon when they go to
the latrine. We may not find out the
actual circumstances of his capture
until the situation is resolved.Bowe R.
Bergdahl’s was born March 28, 1986
in Sun Valley, Idaho. His home town is
Hailey, Idaho where his father Robert
and mother Jani live, along with his
older sister Sky. Robert Bergdahl is a
United Parcel Service (UPS) driver and
works the family 40 acre farm in the
town of 6,000. Bowe was home
schooled and earned a high school
equivalency and then traveled a lot
which included a three month hitch on
a commercial fishing boat off the coast
of Alaska. He was into dirt bike riding
and ballet dancing. At the age of 25 he
joined the active U.S. Army and did not
tell his parents until after the fact.
After his training, Bowe was assigned
to Co. B, 1st Bn, 501st Infantry Regt.,
4th BCT, 25th ID stationed at Fort
Richardson, just outside Anchorage,
Alaska. His unit deployed to eastern
Afghanistan in February 2009. In May
2009 his Company B was assigned to
Outpost Mest. The next month he was
taken prisoner.
Since Bowe has been in captivity, the
U.S. Army has promoted him twice. In
June 2010 he was promoted to Specialist Fourth Class (E-4) and in June
2011 he was promoted to Sergeant (E5). If Bowe R. Bergdahl’s disappearance was suspicious to the Army it is
highly unlikely the Army would have
promoted him while in captivity.
Pag e 9
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
A LITTLE AIR FORCE HUMOR by Bob (Scooter)
SEPTEMBER BACK & BOOT PATCHES—CONGRADULATIONS
Randy Reagan (Left) and Dorothy Reagan (Right) Receives their Back & Boot Patches
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
Page 10
Rolling Thunder® NH Chapter 1
PO Box 343
Epping, NH 03042
Phone—603-370-0691
mailto:[email protected]
http://rollingthunder-nh1.org/
DEFENSE PRISONER OF WAR / MISSING PERSONNEL OFFICE (DPMO)
Official DPMO Count as of October 22, 2012*
Unaccounted For
Total MIA
WWII
Korean War Cold War
***73,681
*7,942
126
Vietnam War Gulf War
1,655
2
Iraq
3
Other Operations
Total
1
83,410
* NOTE: The Count for the Unaccounted is constantly changing as investigations are opened or completed. This count is for only completed conflicts so anyone missing in Afghanistan, like Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, are still
under the Jurisdiction of that military branch. Accountablity for Iraq was turned over to DPMO on December 1, 2011.
DPMO also accounts DOD Cililians and DOD Contractors. The 3 missing in Iraq are DOD Contractors.
** Reflects actual number still unaccounted-for. Personnel Management Korea (PMKOR) database count is slightly
higher due to several entries pending administrative review.
*** The number represents those missing from World War II as determined from the congressionally-mandated
“World War II Return of the Dead Program,” (which ended Dec. 31, 1951), and the final 1956 Army Graves Registration Service (AGRS) roster which listed all WWII individuals considered unresolved by AGRS at that point (it contained 80,871 names but included 6,299 men officially buried at sea who are not considered missing). The present
total reflects those numbers as well as those recovered and identified since 1956 and will continue to be updated
as ongoing identifications are made or as research supports adjustments to the list.
WEEKLY POW/MIA VIGIL - MEREDITH NH
Every Thursday evening starting at 7:00 p.m. people gather in Hesky Park, located in Meredith, New Hampshire The Thursday evening Vigils started in August of 1989 in an effort to raise awareness about the abandonment of Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action. The first Vigil lasted 15 minutes; one minute to
symbolize each year since the US State Department declared, "There are no more prisoners in Southeast
Asia. They are all dead." The vigil now spans 32 minutes.
The Meredith POW/MIA Vigil is believed to be the longest consecutively-held vigil in the United States.
There has never been a Thursday night Vigil unattended since its inception. Vigil goers have weathered
MONTHLY POW/MIA VIGIL - MANCHESTER NH
Just want to let everyone know that there is a monthly POW/MIA Vigil held in Manchester NH on the 1st Wednesday
of every month. This is usually the day after our meeting. It is held at Veterans Park on Elm Street. Currently it's a
small group.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
2012
NOVEMBER 4NOVEMBER 6NOVEMBER 10NOVEMBER 12DECEMBER 42013
JANUARY 8FEBRUARY 5MARCH 5 APRIL 2MAY 7JUNE 4JULY 2AUGUST 6
SEPTEMBER 3OCTOBER 1-
10:30am-12:00pm Boscawen Cemetery Cleanup
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
6pm-11pm Patriotic Night Epping Legion
Veterans Day Observed
7:30pm Monthly Meeting & Christmas Party & Yankee Swap
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
7:30 pm Monthly Meeting Epping American Legion
R o l l in g T hu n de r®
Page 11
THE CLOSING SHOT
Bob (Boob) is Thinking:
HOW MANY BOOKS IS STEVE GOING TO MAKE ME MOVE THIS WEEK!!!!!!
NEVER
FORGET