Wayne Ogren searched for words after taps played, after a C-130 Hercules buzzed low overhead and after bells chimed.
He found tears.
Ogren and his wife aren't young anymore, but they drove 700 miles from Georgia to Fort Myer in one day to see his brother, 2nd Lt. Jack A. Ogren, honored nearly 66 years after he died in a World War II plane crash, June 14, 1943, in Australia.
For the first time Thursday, Ogren saw a modest monument for the crash victims at its new home on U.S. soil at Fort Myer, which is adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. The marker honors 40 American servicemen killed in the crash and a lone survivor, Foye Kenneth Roberts of Wichita Falls, Texas, who died in 2004.
Choked up, Ogren turned to his wife, Belva, for help.
"I feel like Wayne, like crying," she said.
Eventually, he found simple words: "Thank God."
His brother is forever young, smiling and uniformed in laminated photos that Ogren pulled out of his pocket Thursday after a dedication ceremony for the marker.
"People always tell me he looks like me," said Ogren, still the proud little brother.
He was 11 years old when his mother received a sketchy notice of Jack's death. Wartime censorship shrouded the death in secrecy and haunted a mother hungry for details.
Just after an early-morning takeoff, a B-17C Flying Fortress converted for troop transport went down, killing the six-man crew and all but one of the 35 soldiers returning from leave at a Red Cross camp in Mackay, Queensland, to the battlefields of Papua New Guinea. The plane crashed at the town of Bakers Creek in Queensland.
Jack was the navigator on the war-battered aircraft, nicknamed "Miss Every Morning Fix It." The cause of the crash is unknown.
Family members of the victims pushed for years for a way to honor the troops. Finally, in 2006, a monument was placed at the Embassy of Australia in Washington. However, the families and advocates wanted it moved to U.S. soil.
"We didn't take no for an answer," said Robert Cutler, executive director of the Bakers Creek Memorial Association's U.S. branch.
His father, Capt. Samuel Cutler, was the officer of the day who closed the door on the plane and documented the crash in his diary.
"I'm not sure he hasn't been active getting this together," said Cutler, who lives near Orrtanna, Pa.
Peggy Whelchel Estes came Thursday in honor of a man who might have become her father.
"Anytime there's a death of this magnitude in a family so suddenly with a young person, there's a tragedy that goes through the family for years," said Estes.
Staff Sgt. Frank E. Whelchel, off to fight the war, left serious instructions for his brother, Boyd Whelchel.
"If I don't make it back, take care of Ruth," the young soldier said. Ruth was Frank's fiancee.
Boyd took his instructions seriously. After the tragic crash, Boyd and Ruth ended up getting married. Estes is the daughter of the late couple.
Frank Whelchel and Jack Ogren belonged to the 317th Troop Carrier Group. Now called the 317th Airlift Group, the unit based at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, sent the C-130 Hercules for a flyby during the ceremony.
The dedication ceremony was dotted with American and Australian dignitaries, including U.S. Army Secretary Pete Geren.
"The story behind this monument began long ago," Geren said. "It finally ends here at Selfridge Gate."
The marker's new home near Fort Myer's gate is a few feet from Arlington National Cemetery.
But a loose end dangles across the decades.
Amateur historians are still looking for the family of one crash victim, Pfc. Frederick C. Sweet of Detroit.
Volunteer researchers have waded through documents, cried out for help on RootsWeb.com, an information exchange for genealogists, and made cold calls to puzzled possible relatives. But all they've found is some very distant possible relations, said C.K. Gailey, an Army retiree and archaeology volunteer from Silver Spring, Md.
For video footage, go to: <object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5095651&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5095651&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object>Bakers Creek Memorial moves to Fort Myer, Va from Scripps Howard News Service on Vimeo.
(Washington regional correspondent Trish Choate can be reached at choatet(at)shns.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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