Hometown Boy Returns Home: After more than 40 years

Sgt David Lemcke

For twice as long as he was alive, U.S. Army Sgt. David E. Lemcke’s remains lay mingled with the ruins of a burned-out munitions bunker in Quang Tri Province, just south of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam.

Never forgotten by his family, the brothers he served with in the Vietnam War or by his hometown, Lemcke’s remains returned Wednesday to a hero’s welcome in Hilton.

All along Hilton Parma Road in the village, throngs of flag-carrying residents saluted and applauded as a hearse-led procession of Vietnam veterans, police and more than 150 motorcycle-riding Patriot Guards escorted his remains from the Greater Rochester International Airport to Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home in Hilton.

Calling hours will be held on Veteran’s Day, and on Saturday Sgt. Lemcke will join his parents Elsie and Howard Lemcke in burial at Parma Union Cemetery.

Both his parents died without ever knowing what had happened to their oldest son.

For his surviving family, Wednesday’s return ceremonies for the brother killed on May 21, 1968, were “overwhelming,” said his sister, Darlene Wallace of Rochester. Lemcke is also survived by sisters Lise Lemcke-Smith and Deborah Almeter, brother James Lemcke; six nieces and nephews; aunts and uncles; and many cousins.

“It was an amazing experience to see all the people that came out, the Patriot Guard, the Vietnam vets, and to see the sign on the high school that says ‘Welcome Home Sgt. Lemcke,'” said Wallace.

Every student of Hilton High School stood on the school’s front lawn — across the street from the funeral home — and applauded as Lemcke’s flag-draped coffin was solemnly carried inside.

The loss

David Earl Lemcke was a 1965 graduate of Hilton High School with dreams of working with animals. He loved to hunt and ride horses, and loved his dogs. He grew up on Parma Center Road, in a white farmhouse catty-corner to Parma Union Cemetery.

He was thinking of becoming a farrier but was drafted in 1966, when he was just 18.

His family was notified he was missing in action in March 1968

He was 20 years old.

Their mother, who died in 1995, never forgave the Army for her eldest son’s death, said Lise Lemcke-Smith.

“She felt they took away her son and didn’t give her anything back,” she said. “Maybe now she can forgive.”

The recovery

It was through the efforts of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii that Lemcke’s remains were identified on Sept. 12.

The organization worked with a Michigan man who’d served with Lemcke and believed he knew where he’d died in an explosion set off by a soldier accidentally firing into a bunker of trip-flares and smoke grenades.

According to the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, multiple investigations had been carried out by U.S. and Vietnamese teams looking for Lemcke between 1993 and 2011.

But the early investigators were unable to excavate the bunker due to “a large quantity of unexploded ordinances scattered throughout the area.”

Once the explosives were removed and the site deemed safe, a team in June was able to excavate and found human remains along with Lemcke’s metal identification tags and prescription eyeglass lenses. He was identified through the circumstantial evidence and dental analysis.

Lee Tucker, JPAC public affairs officer, said the organization typically identifies about 100 MIAs every year in its quest to account for service members missing in action.

Tucker said there are more than 80,000 MIAs yet to be located: 1,681 from Vietnam; 125 from the Cold War; just less than 8,000 from the Korean War; and nearly 74,000 from World War II.

Leave none behind

As the cargo doors of the Delta Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-88 carrying her brother opened, Lise Lemcke-Smith could hear dogs inside barking.

“All I could think was that it was nice for him to have traveling companions,” she said, choking back tears outside Burger Funeral Home.

The community turnout and overall reception for her brother’s return was more than the family expected.

“We were laughing, we were crying, it was just amazing,” said Lemcke-Smith. “I am in awe of the community and the support they gave for my brother.”

Lemcke is the sixth of 12 local Vietnam MIAs to be returned home, said Joe Peck, POW/MIA chairman of the local Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 20.

“Return is something we as an organization strive for,” said Peck, one of more than a dozen Chapter 20 members who participated in Wednesday’s ceremonies for Lemcke. “We want accountability for all of our men. We are never going to forget the boys who went out, gave their lives and never came home.”

Ken Moore, president of Chapter 20, wore a POW/MIA bracelet bearing Lemcke’s name for nearly 40 years. It was a constant reminder of the work that still needed to be done. He turned that bracelet over to Lemcke’s family members this week. “We refuse to leave any of our brothers behind,” he said.