TOMS RIVER – Members of American Legion Post 129 remembered prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.
The 13th annual POW-MIA ceremony was hosted by the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 129 and featured keynote speaker Chuck Robbins, a former American Legion Post commander, past national executive committeeman, and past department commander.
Robbins compared and contrasted the stories of two servicemen who were missing in action during the Vietnam War, Major Ronald Michael Mayercik of Edison who was classified as MIA on November 24, 1967 and was never accounted for and Major George John Pollin of Lavallette who was declared MIA after his Phantom jet was shot down on April 29, 1967. He was later identified, recovered, and accounted for.
Robbins read the bios of both servicemen. Present at the service were Jan Buttler, Mayercik’s sister and Pollin’s brother Larry Pollin and his sister Barbara Greger.
“I have always felt it’s because of events as this, and the many others our great American Legion family does throughout the year regarding this issue, that the American Legion is the leader on the issue. These events send a message to our elected officials to support legislation and policies that will make available the use of all necessary resources to achieve the fullest possible accounting.”
Robbins added “they send a message to our military that we are with you…that God forbid, should any service member go unaccounted for or be captured, we want everything done immediately to secure your release and account for you…this is so “No One Gets Left Behind.”
He added that such ceremonies “send a message to our MIA families, that we care, and are with you throughout these difficult times. Over the years the United States has been forced painfully and reluctantly to send our men and women to fight on distant shores. Some of them gave their lives, some made sacrifices equally great, and some were imprisoned.”
“There are others to whom we must always be faithful to also. They are why we are here tonight. They are the missing and unaccounted for. Those who went across the sea and never returned, and whose fate is still unknown,” he added.
Robbins noted that “42 years have passed since the Regan administration said to our MIA families, ‘your government will not abandon those who failed to return. We write no last chapter, we close no books, we put away no final memories, until your questions are answered.’”
“The ‘Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency’ today seeks to find answers for our MIA families. At various locations throughout the world their team members use compassion, integrity, teamwork, respect, and innovation in their accounting efforts. I am here to ensure you leave here with a renewed sense of how important an issue this is,” Robbins said.
He added that he had attended “funerals for repatriated MIAs, I’ve seen American remains repatriated to U.S. soil at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, I have visited the Joint POW-MIA Commands Forensic Laboratories in Hawaii, and for years have worked closely with the National League of POW-MIA families. This is a very serious, sensitive issue, that has come a long way in accounting efforts, but one with many questions that still need to be answered.”
“I want everyone here to know the meaning of the word ‘closure.’ Webster’s dictionary describes ‘closure’ as the feeling or act one gets in bringing an unpleasant situation to an end, and more so, that you have come to terms with what was hampering you, and you are ready to move on. Please keep this word and description in mind as we move on,” Robbins said.
Mayercik was the navigator aboard a Phantom jet when it vanished, and his remains have never been found. Subsequent to the incident, and while carried in the status of MIA, the Air Force promoted 1st Lieutenant Mayercik to the rank of Major. Major Brendan Foley was subsequently promoted to the rank of Colonel, and to this date remains “unaccounted for” also.
“The family of Major Mayercik all these years later still has no closure. Jan is a good friend and agreed to come here and tell us a bit about Ronald, what he was like, and what she and her family, especially her parents, experienced on Thanksgiving Day 1967 and in the years that followed, and how they have never given up hope that he would be accounted for.”
“He knew as a little boy that he always wanted to fly and he was extremely patriotic,” Buttler said. “Fifty-five years ago, my brother was lost. Nothing has changed. We still don’t know where he is. Year after year after year, it is always the same.”
“On Christmas we expected him to be home. My cousins and I were going to bake cookies the next day and send them off to the troops but instead two Air Force officers came to our house and they said to my mother, ‘Your son is missing. We don’t know where he is.’ My mother said ‘Thank God he’s only missing.’ At the time she thought it was wonderful.”
She noted that her family thought he may have been a prisoner of war and would be identified and released at the end of the war.
Larry Pollin said he wears a Gold Star every day. “People ask what it is. They have no idea what it means. The pin is worn by a member of a Gold Star family that has experienced a loss of a loved one – an immediate family member who died as the result of military service. Those left behind are recognized as Gold Star families.”
“His remains are now at Arlington National Ceremony,” Greger said of her brother who was repatriated. “It was a relief.”
Robbins, a staff officer of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs presented Buttler with several awards on behalf of her brother. The New Jersey Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the New Jersey POW-MIA medal and the New Jersey Vietnam Service Medal.
Other speakers included Rocky Lucia, the master of ceremonies; Keith Barnes, the commander of SAL Detachment of New Jersey; Sharon Knight, the president of the American Legion Auxiliary Department of New Jersey; Larry Bishop, the commander of the American Legion Department of New Jersey; Joseph H. Vicari, then-director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners; David Corbin, the POW/MIA Committee Chairman of the American Legion Department of New Jersey; and Bernice Cloos, past president of Auxiliary Unit 129. Singer Ron Brooks sang the National Anthem and “Amazing Grace.”
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