waving American flag   David Lemcke, American Hero  waving POW flag

 

Lemcke's medals in a frame

A man is not dead until he is forgotten graphic

 

If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.

Take what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.

And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

-- Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970, Dak To, Vietnam
MIA 24 March 1974

  Name: David Earl Lemcke
 Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
 Unit: B Battery, 1st Battalion, 40th Artillery,
 108th Artillery Group
 Date of Birth: 28 July 1947
 Home City of Record: Hilton NY
 Date of Loss: 21 May 1968
 Country of Loss: South Vietnam
 Loss Coordinates: 165608N 1070748E
 Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
 Category: 4
 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
 Refno: 1185
 Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
 Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.

 REMARKS: (none)

 SYNOPSIS: SSgt. David Lemcke was assigned to B Battery, 1st Battalion, 40th Artillery, 108th Artillery Group at Fire Support Base Alpha-1, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. He was a rifleman for his unit.

On May 21, 1968, Lemcke was in a personnel bunker with four other individuals. One of the men was cleaning a weapon when it accidentally discharged into a box of illumination grenades. Two of the five men were near the entrance of the bunker and were able to escape to safety. The bunker burned extensively, and there were numerous explosions from the large amount of ammunition store there. No remains were ever found that could be identified or related to Lemcke.

Lemcke is listed with honor among the missing because his remains were never found and returned to the country he served. His case seems quite clear. For others who are listed missing, resolution is not as simple. Many were known to have survived their loss incident. Quite a few were in radio contact with search teams and describing an advancing enemy.

Some were photographed or recorded in captivity. Others simply vanished without a
trace.

When the war ended, and 591 Americans were released in Operation Homecoming in 1973, military experts expressed their dismay that "some hundreds" of POWs did not come home with them. Since that time, thousands of reports have been received, indicating that many Americans are still being held against their will in Southeast Asia. Whether Lemcke is among them is not at all likely. What is certain, however, is that if only one American remains alive in enemy hands, we owe him our best effort to bring him home.

 

 

3/5 crossed sabers

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