By the way; you should have gotten the Medal of Honor if the facts are as I heard. The Silver Star, Bronze, and Purple Heart will have to do until I have more facts and when I do I'm going to appeal to the Navy Department through Senator Don Nickles  (R-OK) for an upgrade.

Terry's wife, May, requested that I escort his body to Oceanside, Ca. for funeral and burial.  I did, as a civilian with U.S. Military orders, a most difficult task, but I was very proud to help bury him and hand the United States flag to Terry's wife, May, as the U. S. Marine Honor Guard fired a 21 shot volley.

I escorted your body back to Oceanside where I stood with your wife and five children at The Oceanside Mortuary. I know we had promised each other that we'd escort the other's remains if possible and I felt the typical guilt often described by friends who'd served together. Mostly, I felt really helpless trying to console your wife when the funeral director opened the lid of the casket and we all were able to view your remains through a plastic "bubble" which was attached to the casket. We had seen many traumatic deaths of Marines and Corpsmen but I'd never felt so helpless. Once I handed your wife the folded United States flag at the conclusion of the graveside military service, I felt better having done something that your wife said was a very proud moment for her and your children.

I lost a great and loyal friend who had previously treated me, saving my life. I also noticed that you had been awarded the Silver Star, The Bronze Star, The Navy Lifesaving Medal, and some others but I felt you should have been awarded The Congressional Medal Of Honor since others had received it having acted far less heroically.

May and I viewed the body through a plexiglass lid under the regular casket lid and noticed his hands were gloved with white his head and face showed no evidence of injury. This last speculation came from some Marine who heard such and such. We listened trying to piece together all we could determine to be facts; so far none are. This kind of speculation is very frustrating but it's all we have to date.  There are so many different accounts of such incidents. 

 I am a trained investigator and a medically retired Navy man and I can't get an incident report or any information from the Military Records Center. It could be that I'm just being put off since I did not have Terry's service number and social security number. I have asked Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) for assistance. I really don't expect Senator Inhofe to take any action unless he's provided more solid information than what I've given him.  

Terry's wife, May was  going to try to get the details but never saw her again after the burial. Terry was from Des Moines, Iowa but I believe, his wife decided to stay in Fallbrook, California since Terry was buried with full Mitary Honors, at The Oceanside Cemetery.   May surely remarried but I lost track of her after the funeral;  so much grief and a lot of it was mine.

 I've attempted to reach any family members, to no avail. He had a brother a Chief Petty Officer USN  who was at the funeral Mass and burial. All I have concerning Terry are memories and an online picture of the Military Headstone.

To get an upgrade to the C.M.H. does not seem likely since I did not have  the Certification of Medals awarded; I did however recognize the ribbons pinned on Terry's burial uniform and the highest ranking ones were as previously stated. The Award Citation specifies the actions taken by the recipient to cause the award to be given and that's a document I feel I may never see.

 I  have asked U.S. Senator Harkin to check into the circumstances of Terry's death and to assist in getting Terry recommended for The Congressional Medal of Honor if the death certificate and DD214 can be located which would show the awards given. I believe that the CMH has been given recently to a young man killed in Iraq under similar circumstances.

 It was interesting to find out in Sen Harkin's BIO that he was a Navy Jet Pilot during the same time as Terry were serving with The 3rd Marine Division.    "Harkin has been a leader in the Senate in calling on the Department of Defense to improve the process for issuing military medals so that veterans receive the medals that they earned for their service. In 1999, Harkin added an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill which directed the Secretary of Defense to eliminate the backlog in decoration requests. Since then, delays in receiving medals have been greatly reduced and hundreds of Iowa veterans have benefited from Senator Harkin's intervention on this issue. If someone you know who is missing medals, please contact any of Senator Harkin's five Iowa offices ."

From the time I met him until I escorted his body home to be buried in  California  was less than two years.

  
I have tried to contact the niece who appeared in the on line forum, to no avail. Maybe her e-mail has changed since then and she didn't get the messages.

Birth:		Aug. 5, 1937
Death:		Nov. 9, 1966 Quang Nam, Vietnam
Inscription: "IOWA, HM1 US NAVY, VIETNAM"   Note: Vietnam Veterans Wall: Panel 12E, Line 48
Burial: Eternal Hills Memorial Park Oceanside San Diego County California, USA Plot: Calvary section