koz
05-28-2012, 21:26
Rest well Sir.
I went to school with Capt Entrican's nephew.
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http://dailyleader.com/topstories/article_14e0a722-637a-11df-b50f-001cc4c03286.html
"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me'" - Isaiah 6:8
Brookhaven's Capt. Daniel Day Entrican went missing in action in Vietnam in 1971, but there's still a table reserved for him at the head of the room.
The small table is covered with a white cloth, symbolizing the purity of his call to arms. A lone candle reminds of his solidarity in captivity, and its black ribbon symbolizes his loss. Entrican's glass is turned upside down because he isn't there to raise a toast with his friends.
His boots are polished and waiting on the floor.
"His chair is empty, he is not here," said Janet Sullivan, a liaison with the Military Order of the Purple Heart, as she concluded an MIA-POW ceremony for Entrican.
Sullivan's solemn tribute was the apex of a ceremony in Entrican's honor held Tuesday night at Brookhaven VFW Post 2618, the Daniel Day Entrican Post, 39 years to the day since the Special Forces commando was last seen trying to escape and evade the enemy in Vietnam. The Mississippi National Guard sent an honor guard for the fallen warrior, a team from the U.S. Army's 20th Special Forces Group came to pay their respects and more than 50 veterans, family and friends gathered in his remembrance.
Most importantly, the program gave comfort to Entrican's relatives, who have spent almost four decades wondering what happened to their brother. The VFW presented them with a plaque bearing Daniel Entrican's picture, information and many medals and awards.
"This is the first time anything like this has been done for Danny," said Brookhaven's Jenny Watson, Entrican's sister. "We all appreciate it so much, and he would have been real proud of it."
Watson, 66, is still waiting for complete closure. She and her sister, Jackson's Judy Kirkpatrick, 75, were briefed by the U.S. Department of Defense last year on the government's ongoing effort to recover the remains of servicemen listed as MIA from the Vietnam War, which began more than 45 years ago.
Watson is hopeful her missing brother's final fate can be ascertained. She still wears his MIA-POW bracelet.
"I don't want to take it off until we have complete closure," she said.
Brookhaven's Greg Entrican, 52, never quite knew his distant cousin, but he knows his heroics. He came to Tuesday night's ceremony to pay his respects to his kin and continue learning about Daniel Entrican's service.
"It makes me proud to be an American, and proud that I have family who gave it all," he said.
It was the impact Post 2618 Cmdr. Billy Hughes was hoping for when, months ago, he began planning Entrican's ceremony to officially dedicate the building that bears his name.
"What really struck me is how the family responded," he said. "It let them know people still care about those who gave everything they had for the country."
Entrican gave everything he had in the thick jungle on May 8, 1971, 39 years to the day before the ceremony in his honor.
He was a member of Recon Team Alaska, a highly skilled Special Forces group attached to the covert Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group. Entrican's team was inserted into the Da Krong Valley on May 15, 1971, and was overwhelmed by North Vietnamese Army forces near the Laotian border two days later.
With squadmates killed and wounded, Entrican ordered the remainder of his force to move out while he held his ground. He was last seen on May 18, 1971, and sources reported the capture of an American in the vicinity on that date, though there's no way of knowing whether or not it was Entrican. Search and rescue attempts did not succeed.
In 1991, the U.S. Senate released the "Last Known Alive List" of more than 300 MIA-POWs believed to be alive in captivity. Entrican's name was on the list, though all have been declared deceased.
Lt. Col. (ret) Don Taylor of Crystal Springs delivered the keynote address at Entrican's ceremony, closing with a short story about a man crying at the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. In the story, the man was asked, ‘Was one of them yours,' and he responded, ‘No, son, all of them are mine.'
"Capt. Entrican and all the rest are all ours, yours and mine, and will be so for all eternity," Taylor said.
I went to school with Capt Entrican's nephew.
----
http://dailyleader.com/topstories/article_14e0a722-637a-11df-b50f-001cc4c03286.html
"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me'" - Isaiah 6:8
Brookhaven's Capt. Daniel Day Entrican went missing in action in Vietnam in 1971, but there's still a table reserved for him at the head of the room.
The small table is covered with a white cloth, symbolizing the purity of his call to arms. A lone candle reminds of his solidarity in captivity, and its black ribbon symbolizes his loss. Entrican's glass is turned upside down because he isn't there to raise a toast with his friends.
His boots are polished and waiting on the floor.
"His chair is empty, he is not here," said Janet Sullivan, a liaison with the Military Order of the Purple Heart, as she concluded an MIA-POW ceremony for Entrican.
Sullivan's solemn tribute was the apex of a ceremony in Entrican's honor held Tuesday night at Brookhaven VFW Post 2618, the Daniel Day Entrican Post, 39 years to the day since the Special Forces commando was last seen trying to escape and evade the enemy in Vietnam. The Mississippi National Guard sent an honor guard for the fallen warrior, a team from the U.S. Army's 20th Special Forces Group came to pay their respects and more than 50 veterans, family and friends gathered in his remembrance.
Most importantly, the program gave comfort to Entrican's relatives, who have spent almost four decades wondering what happened to their brother. The VFW presented them with a plaque bearing Daniel Entrican's picture, information and many medals and awards.
"This is the first time anything like this has been done for Danny," said Brookhaven's Jenny Watson, Entrican's sister. "We all appreciate it so much, and he would have been real proud of it."
Watson, 66, is still waiting for complete closure. She and her sister, Jackson's Judy Kirkpatrick, 75, were briefed by the U.S. Department of Defense last year on the government's ongoing effort to recover the remains of servicemen listed as MIA from the Vietnam War, which began more than 45 years ago.
Watson is hopeful her missing brother's final fate can be ascertained. She still wears his MIA-POW bracelet.
"I don't want to take it off until we have complete closure," she said.
Brookhaven's Greg Entrican, 52, never quite knew his distant cousin, but he knows his heroics. He came to Tuesday night's ceremony to pay his respects to his kin and continue learning about Daniel Entrican's service.
"It makes me proud to be an American, and proud that I have family who gave it all," he said.
It was the impact Post 2618 Cmdr. Billy Hughes was hoping for when, months ago, he began planning Entrican's ceremony to officially dedicate the building that bears his name.
"What really struck me is how the family responded," he said. "It let them know people still care about those who gave everything they had for the country."
Entrican gave everything he had in the thick jungle on May 8, 1971, 39 years to the day before the ceremony in his honor.
He was a member of Recon Team Alaska, a highly skilled Special Forces group attached to the covert Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group. Entrican's team was inserted into the Da Krong Valley on May 15, 1971, and was overwhelmed by North Vietnamese Army forces near the Laotian border two days later.
With squadmates killed and wounded, Entrican ordered the remainder of his force to move out while he held his ground. He was last seen on May 18, 1971, and sources reported the capture of an American in the vicinity on that date, though there's no way of knowing whether or not it was Entrican. Search and rescue attempts did not succeed.
In 1991, the U.S. Senate released the "Last Known Alive List" of more than 300 MIA-POWs believed to be alive in captivity. Entrican's name was on the list, though all have been declared deceased.
Lt. Col. (ret) Don Taylor of Crystal Springs delivered the keynote address at Entrican's ceremony, closing with a short story about a man crying at the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. In the story, the man was asked, ‘Was one of them yours,' and he responded, ‘No, son, all of them are mine.'
"Capt. Entrican and all the rest are all ours, yours and mine, and will be so for all eternity," Taylor said.