Saving sergeant stewart
North Carolina
in post production
in post production
Saving Sgt. Stewart
Written by Steven C. Barber in November 2015
VanillaFire.com
StevenCBarber.weebly.com
310.806.5833
In the early morning on Dec 11,1965 in the sweltering heat of south Vietnam, Airforce Sgt. Donald Stewart ,who was the loadmaster on a C 123, took off on a mission with 80 south Vietnamese soldiers and 4 American crew. That flight never returned, crashing into a mountain and killing all on board.
Wandra Stewart, and her unborn daughter Dona, would now be thrust into a journey, for the next five decades, that neither one wanted, or could have predicted, in there wildest dreams. Unfortunately, this was not a dream, but a fifty year long nightmare.
In 2012, I had been invited to screen my film, Until They Are Home, narrated by Kelsey Grammer, at the POW/MIA family league in Washington DC. Both Wandra and her daughter attended the screening, and that is where a friendship was born.
I had stayed in touch with them throughout the years, and in the beginning of 2015, Dona contacted me and told me there had been a DNA match with her father from a discarded set of bones that came co mingled to the JPAC lab in 1974. I discussed the opportunity with her to document the repatriation of her father from Honolulu to Raleigh North Carolina, and we did just that. I can safely say, it was one of the most noble and significant weeks of my life.
I arrived in Honolulu to meet both Wondra and Dona, the second week of November 2015. Spirits and emotions were high, and we had several things to do on the itinerary, from heading back to the joint POW MIA account to command, and also to the funeral home, to pick out a casket for the remains.
I had made a very well received film with my producing partner, Matthew Hausle, about the joint POW /MIA accounting Command, in 2012, that reached the Oscar shortlist. (www.untiltheyarehome.com) Even though we made a positive film about JPAC ,I was never welcome back, as the organization is extremely mismanaged ,and has been under scrutiny for years ,and recently has gone through an entire brand scrub, except for the head of the organization, who remains in place.
The next morning, we met the head of US Air Force mortuary services at the front gate of Hickam Air Force Base, and headed toward the new $95 million joint POW MIA accounting command building.
It immediately occurred to me, had JPAC spent $95 million looking for some of 88,000 missing from World War II , Korea and Vietnam, it would've been money much better spent.
The head of the organization, Johnny Webb, met us, and when he saw me, he had the deer in the headlights look times a thousand. At this point, there was nothing he could do, and I pointed my camera and switched it on, and the documentary began.
It started with a brief tour with skeletal remains behind a clear glass, that you're not allowed to take pictures of, as these remains are active cases of DNA matches. We then headed to a floating room in the middle of the apex of the new building, where the remains of SGT Stewart were being housed ,and this moment was indeed bitter sweet for both Donna and Wandra. This would be the first family to
to participate in such a ceremony in the new building. I was documenting history in the making.
After 15 minutes of examining the remains, Wandra and Dona, whom actually were holding the bones. They were then placed back into a green army blanket, and folded up reverently, and put into a waiting Gurney, which was put into a hearse to head to the funeral home for travel back to the mainland.
Wandra looked at all of us ,caressing one of the bones of the remains with a huge smile ,with tears running down here face and said " I just wanted to hold him one more time"! Profound is an adjective that it is not big enough for that moment, which took 50 years to happen
Our last day, we all met at the Honolulu airport for the first leg of our trip back to Raleigh ,where the casket was put onto the aircraft with the meticulous inspection of an Air Force escort, and a brief reverent service on the tarmac. The escorts name was Airman Wavra, a 24 year old, who hand been hand picked for this once in a life time honor. He exuded youth, honor and integrity.
The nine hour flight back to Atlanta and a terrific announcement from the Captain, and a large round of applause from all passengers that were kind enough, not only to take a moment to remember Sergeant Stewart ,but to also let the family off the plane first.
Upon the deplaning from the delta aircraft, we were greeted by the most noble group of Americans I have ever known, the Delta patriot guard. These gentlemen have cared for 3800 soldiers, through their system, in the last several years, and take every single casket and ceremony beyond and above important.
The casket came off the plane and was loaded into a patriot guard vehicle for processing to the next aircraft on its way to Raleigh. The two hour wait between flights was amazing as John Smith the head of the patriot guard gave us an unbelievable tutorial of what the patriot guard does and showed us several hundred pictures of fallen soldiers that have come through Atlanta.
To say that the men in this organization are Patriots of the highest order, would be an understatement. What these men do for the fallen soldiers that come back to America has secured all of them a very good spot in heaven. They are the unsung heroes in the cold and heat of our nation’s tarmacs!
The head of the Patriot guard gave both Donna and Wandra commanders coin, and we did a brief ceremony on the tarmac, as the casket was placed onto a third Delta jet, heading to its final resting place in Raleigh North Carolina.
Upon landing in Raleigh, we were greeted by to water cannons, as the plane went underneath both intense streams of spray. The weather had turned a bitter cold ,and the rain was coming down in buckets , which made for quite a dramatic return. There were hundreds of people braving the rain, and the media was in full force.
The third and final ceremony and retrieval of SGT Stewart was again brief, brilliant and beautiful. The families and friends gathered in the USO office in the airport to dry off and then to the funeral home where hundreds more waited including the legendary biker group, Rolling Thunder
In a stirring and emotional ceremony, again with massive media, both Wandra and Dona met with over 100 rolling thunder members, standing at attention, all adorned in there leathers and the American Flag as the cold and hard rain pelted the ground.
The following day was Veterans Day, where the entire town of Coats, North Carolina showed up, and the grey and wet skies had turned to sunny blue skies, as far as the eye could see.
A series of speakers in tribute to Sgt Stewart and other fallen soldiers , gave it their all, as old glory and the POW/MIA Flag moved softly though the breeze.
Both Dona and Wandra were whisked away as the grand marshals of the parade in the town of Coats, and then our final ride to the cemetery.
The Airforce pulled out the Red Carpet with a five star Ceremony that would rival anything at Arlington , including a rifle squad send off , full military honors ending with three white pigeons , representing the father , the son and the Holy Ghost.
There are still 1600 MIAs from Vietnam and some 88,000 from WW 2. While it took 50 years to bring home SGT Donald Stewart, there is no statute of limitations on death.
Let the repatriation of Donald Stewart be a wake up call to JPAC and the U.S. Government. If a mother and daughter team can spend 50 years looking for their loved one , and bring him home,
then, the US Government should not stop, "Until they are Home"
Steven C. Barber is a filmmaker and writer from Woodstock NY (the great nephew of Edith Wharton) now living in Santa Monica California.
###
Written by Steven C. Barber in November 2015
VanillaFire.com
StevenCBarber.weebly.com
310.806.5833
In the early morning on Dec 11,1965 in the sweltering heat of south Vietnam, Airforce Sgt. Donald Stewart ,who was the loadmaster on a C 123, took off on a mission with 80 south Vietnamese soldiers and 4 American crew. That flight never returned, crashing into a mountain and killing all on board.
Wandra Stewart, and her unborn daughter Dona, would now be thrust into a journey, for the next five decades, that neither one wanted, or could have predicted, in there wildest dreams. Unfortunately, this was not a dream, but a fifty year long nightmare.
In 2012, I had been invited to screen my film, Until They Are Home, narrated by Kelsey Grammer, at the POW/MIA family league in Washington DC. Both Wandra and her daughter attended the screening, and that is where a friendship was born.
I had stayed in touch with them throughout the years, and in the beginning of 2015, Dona contacted me and told me there had been a DNA match with her father from a discarded set of bones that came co mingled to the JPAC lab in 1974. I discussed the opportunity with her to document the repatriation of her father from Honolulu to Raleigh North Carolina, and we did just that. I can safely say, it was one of the most noble and significant weeks of my life.
I arrived in Honolulu to meet both Wondra and Dona, the second week of November 2015. Spirits and emotions were high, and we had several things to do on the itinerary, from heading back to the joint POW MIA account to command, and also to the funeral home, to pick out a casket for the remains.
I had made a very well received film with my producing partner, Matthew Hausle, about the joint POW /MIA accounting Command, in 2012, that reached the Oscar shortlist. (www.untiltheyarehome.com) Even though we made a positive film about JPAC ,I was never welcome back, as the organization is extremely mismanaged ,and has been under scrutiny for years ,and recently has gone through an entire brand scrub, except for the head of the organization, who remains in place.
The next morning, we met the head of US Air Force mortuary services at the front gate of Hickam Air Force Base, and headed toward the new $95 million joint POW MIA accounting command building.
It immediately occurred to me, had JPAC spent $95 million looking for some of 88,000 missing from World War II , Korea and Vietnam, it would've been money much better spent.
The head of the organization, Johnny Webb, met us, and when he saw me, he had the deer in the headlights look times a thousand. At this point, there was nothing he could do, and I pointed my camera and switched it on, and the documentary began.
It started with a brief tour with skeletal remains behind a clear glass, that you're not allowed to take pictures of, as these remains are active cases of DNA matches. We then headed to a floating room in the middle of the apex of the new building, where the remains of SGT Stewart were being housed ,and this moment was indeed bitter sweet for both Donna and Wandra. This would be the first family to
to participate in such a ceremony in the new building. I was documenting history in the making.
After 15 minutes of examining the remains, Wandra and Dona, whom actually were holding the bones. They were then placed back into a green army blanket, and folded up reverently, and put into a waiting Gurney, which was put into a hearse to head to the funeral home for travel back to the mainland.
Wandra looked at all of us ,caressing one of the bones of the remains with a huge smile ,with tears running down here face and said " I just wanted to hold him one more time"! Profound is an adjective that it is not big enough for that moment, which took 50 years to happen
Our last day, we all met at the Honolulu airport for the first leg of our trip back to Raleigh ,where the casket was put onto the aircraft with the meticulous inspection of an Air Force escort, and a brief reverent service on the tarmac. The escorts name was Airman Wavra, a 24 year old, who hand been hand picked for this once in a life time honor. He exuded youth, honor and integrity.
The nine hour flight back to Atlanta and a terrific announcement from the Captain, and a large round of applause from all passengers that were kind enough, not only to take a moment to remember Sergeant Stewart ,but to also let the family off the plane first.
Upon the deplaning from the delta aircraft, we were greeted by the most noble group of Americans I have ever known, the Delta patriot guard. These gentlemen have cared for 3800 soldiers, through their system, in the last several years, and take every single casket and ceremony beyond and above important.
The casket came off the plane and was loaded into a patriot guard vehicle for processing to the next aircraft on its way to Raleigh. The two hour wait between flights was amazing as John Smith the head of the patriot guard gave us an unbelievable tutorial of what the patriot guard does and showed us several hundred pictures of fallen soldiers that have come through Atlanta.
To say that the men in this organization are Patriots of the highest order, would be an understatement. What these men do for the fallen soldiers that come back to America has secured all of them a very good spot in heaven. They are the unsung heroes in the cold and heat of our nation’s tarmacs!
The head of the Patriot guard gave both Donna and Wandra commanders coin, and we did a brief ceremony on the tarmac, as the casket was placed onto a third Delta jet, heading to its final resting place in Raleigh North Carolina.
Upon landing in Raleigh, we were greeted by to water cannons, as the plane went underneath both intense streams of spray. The weather had turned a bitter cold ,and the rain was coming down in buckets , which made for quite a dramatic return. There were hundreds of people braving the rain, and the media was in full force.
The third and final ceremony and retrieval of SGT Stewart was again brief, brilliant and beautiful. The families and friends gathered in the USO office in the airport to dry off and then to the funeral home where hundreds more waited including the legendary biker group, Rolling Thunder
In a stirring and emotional ceremony, again with massive media, both Wandra and Dona met with over 100 rolling thunder members, standing at attention, all adorned in there leathers and the American Flag as the cold and hard rain pelted the ground.
The following day was Veterans Day, where the entire town of Coats, North Carolina showed up, and the grey and wet skies had turned to sunny blue skies, as far as the eye could see.
A series of speakers in tribute to Sgt Stewart and other fallen soldiers , gave it their all, as old glory and the POW/MIA Flag moved softly though the breeze.
Both Dona and Wandra were whisked away as the grand marshals of the parade in the town of Coats, and then our final ride to the cemetery.
The Airforce pulled out the Red Carpet with a five star Ceremony that would rival anything at Arlington , including a rifle squad send off , full military honors ending with three white pigeons , representing the father , the son and the Holy Ghost.
There are still 1600 MIAs from Vietnam and some 88,000 from WW 2. While it took 50 years to bring home SGT Donald Stewart, there is no statute of limitations on death.
Let the repatriation of Donald Stewart be a wake up call to JPAC and the U.S. Government. If a mother and daughter team can spend 50 years looking for their loved one , and bring him home,
then, the US Government should not stop, "Until they are Home"
Steven C. Barber is a filmmaker and writer from Woodstock NY (the great nephew of Edith Wharton) now living in Santa Monica California.
###
For photos go to:
https://www.facebook.com/Saving-Sergeant-Stewart-1715499115351780
https://www.facebook.com/Saving-Sergeant-Stewart-1715499115351780