Gary Welcher; erroneous obituary
Gary Welcher passed on in February, and his family wrote this obituary;
Entered into rest February 23, 2014, Gary T. Welcher, 63, husband of Joanne G. Welcher. Mr. Welcher has lived in the Martinez- Augusta area for the past 35 years. He was a POW while serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart. – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/augustachronicle/obituary.aspx?pid=169854688#sthash.3Q7EI13F.dpuf
The real record is that Gary was an infantryman in Vietnam with the 1st Infantry Division, he got through that without wounds and without being captured. I’m not so quick to blame him for the obituary, because it might not be his fault. I don’t think it is. but the family wrote only two things about his Army career and they were both false. He had the CIB and two Army Commendation Medals. Why couldn’t they mention that?
So we here at TAH honor Gary’s actual service, not some bullshit that jumped into our head, too embarrassed that we know nothing about military service when we write last honors to a brother veteran. Looking at the rest of his life in the obit, I just get a feeling that this wasn’t his fault. Thanks to Mary for her research. Welcome home, Gary.
Category: Who knows
RIP My elder brother in arms.
*and I hope your family corrects that error, I’m sure you wouldn’t want that uncorrected.
It is a shame that this man was bid farewell with a lie. It truly is. Presumably, someone thought that dressing up his record–which needed no dressing!–was somehow valuable. To the person or persons who did the creative writing, I’d like to ask this: For whose benefit did you embellish this man’s record? Was he, in your eyes, inadequate such that you felt you had to prop him up? Vietnam service. CIB. Two commendation medals in a very brief span of time. Not enough? Well, that record was more than enough. You ought to be ashamed.
RIP, brother boonie rat.
The obit is in error. He’s definitely not listed on the repatriated Vietnam POW roster here,
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/pmsea_returnee.pdf
or on the roster of personnel initially MIA and later accounted for here:
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/documents/pmsea_acc_p_name.pdf
He’s also not listed on the roster of names of those who escaped enemy captivity in SEA:
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/pmsea_escapee.pdf
Only five US POWs with names beginning with “WE” were returned alive and/or escaped captivity in SEA. They were
Weaver, Eugene/Civilian
Webb, Roland John/O3/USAF
Wells, Kenneth/O2/USAF
Wells, Norman Louross/O3/USAF
Wendell, John Henry/O3/USAF
Mr. Weaver was captured in South Vietnam. The USAF personnel were all captured in North Vietnam – presumably, they were shot down.
There is also no one with the last name of “Welcher” listed as being unaccounted for in SEA.
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/documents/pmsea_una_p_name.pdf
Mr. Welcher’s family definitely needs to correct his inaccurate obit.
It is so very sad when a family apparently knows so little about their own father/brother/whatever that they must manufacture details of his life. Or simply cannot accept reality.
RIP, brother.
Sad, maybe, but not totally unexpected. How many true warriors have we known about that were very very reluctant to talk about their military and war time exploits?
Man I could post bogus obits EVERYDAY…but Jonn always gives me crap about it.
Sometimes I wonder if people just don’t know what POW or Purple Hearts are when they write obituaries. I’d like to give the dead guy the benefit of the doubt since he was a vet with good service behind him.
DITTO, BK!
Rest In Peace Brother. You DID serve well. I hope your family comes to understand the errors of their words. But I agree, I will not hang that on you.
Unless and until something is presented that HE wrote or did that was fraudulent, I put the blame for this squarely on the surviving members of his family.
I saw the family make mistakes with my Dad’s obit, just minor things like the aircraft he flew on and his crew position. In fairness to my family, he rarely talked about the war after he came back and those who wrote the obituary were not in possession of his records.
Elegantly done, Jonn.
Best,
Pat
Lets be honest here, SOMEBODY put the idea in the families head that he was a POW and had a PH. If they didn’t know anything about his service, they wouldn’t have just randomly made that stuff up.
No, in all likelihood, Gary had been telling that lie to his family for years.
Hey “GoldenDragon.” Your logic escapes me and I don’t mean just by a little bit. Are you a kid?
Totally Illegible 2A copy
I suppose the newspaper could say who wrote the obit, some folks write their own, but I don’t see much interest here in finding out…
Family just lost their father,grandfather, brother, husband and you guys are really fact checking a dead guy? Wow! He didn’t claim anything and yea his family was confused but I read someone say they need to fix it? Plus you had the nerve to post it on here? You all need to grow up and get lives! Really you take a mans obituary an post it online and scrutinize it? Class act right there. You all should be ashamed of yourself. All have really lost the meaning of stolen valor