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Biker group returns fallen soldier's dog tag

 

 

By AUDREY PARENTE, Staff writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- At 16, Darlene Woodruff looked up to her soldier cousin, Army Sgt. Robert Melvin Fletcher, who wrote letters to her from the jungles of Vietnam.

The thought of him not coming home never crossed her mind. But on Mother's Day in 1968, she learned of his death.

"I remember thinking -- wondering -- what kind of things he had faced over there as such a young man," Woodruff said. "I remember thinking he had done something far greater than I had done or would ever do."

More than four decades later, as part of an annual Bike Week party Thursday morning, she learned how her cousin died.

At a special ceremony at the Veterans of Foreign War Post 1590, she watched her sister, Sharron Blais, clutch his dog tag and hug the soldier in whose arms he died.

The former soldier, retired steelworker Clifford William Searcy Jr., found his way to Daytona Beach and Fletcher's family as part of a chain of events that began in 1998 when a Wall Street trader bought a sack of 100 dog tags from a Vietnamese peasant. The journey ended with Searcy telling Woodruff and Blais the story of their cousin's final moments.

"Five companies were in an operation to sweep through an area north of Hue, the old capital of Vietnam," Searcy said. "Somehow we got to the inside of the village and were trying to work our way back out and started up a tree line ..."

Fletcher was standing up, pitching hand grenades while under fire.

"I couldn't get him down. He just looked at me when I was trying to pull him down, like he was proud and said, 'This is what it's about,' " Searcy said. "I don't think he wanted it any other way. He got hit. He died instantly. I put him in a poncho and pulled him out."

Searcy was a surprise presenter of Fletcher's dog tag.

The Grain Valley, Mo., resident got Fletcher's dog tag from a Dog Tag Committee organized by New Jersey State Sen. James Beach, who had been given it, along with more than 100 others, from Manny Santayana. While on vacation, Santayana bought the U.S. servicemen's dog tags from a Vietnamese man who dug up old bombs and other items to sell as scrap metal. He tried for several years to search for the owners himself before seeking help.

Searcy got a call a few days ago from Sue Quinn-Morris, director of research for the Dog Tag Committee, who tracked him down from a heartfelt condolence message he left a long time ago on the virtual Vietnam Wall website.

"We tried to figure out who the dog tags belonged to," Quinn-Morris said in a phone interview. "Some of the people were still alive, but in this instance, Robert Fletcher was killed."

She tracked down Woodruff and Blais, who had stayed in touch with Fletcher's four brothers. They had all grown up together in the Kentucky hills. A nephew of Fletcher's who lives in Kissimmee, Mike Fletcher, went to high school with the fallen soldier.

"People around our area always thought I was the youngest of the Fletcher brothers," Mike Fletcher said in a phone interview.

Quinn-Morris arranged for the Daytona Beach Nam Knights of America, a military and law enforcement motorcycle club, to present the dog tag to the sisters. She contacted member Frank "Stink" Cianfrani of Daytona Beach, a founding member of the Nam club in New Jersey.

"I brought it to the local chapter," Cianfrani said. The club went to work to make it happen. A New Jersey MIA/POW organization sent the club here $250 to pay for Searcy's transportation.

Local Nam club members and other members here for Bike Week gathered at tables Thursday when Bill "Tracker" DeMott, a Port Orange Vietnam veteran, introduced the women.

Then, he made the surprise introduction of Searcy, who was a 20-year-old sergeant himself when he rolled Fletcher's body onto the poncho.

"That was very hard," said Searcy, who was wearing the dog tag when he made the presentation. "I always thought of Robert's mother every Mother's Day. You don't know how great of a guy and what kind of soldier he was. He was not afraid. He was a good leader. And I was proud to have hold of him when he went.

"He does us justice. And because of guys like him, I am here to do this today."

Woodruff and Blais wept during the ceremony. Later, Blais slipped the tag around her neck, replacing her own necklace.

"Robert has come home," she said.

Cliff Searcy , who held his friend dying Army Sgt. Robert Flecher on May 12, 1968 in Vietnam, hugs Fletcher's cousin's Sharron Blais and Darlene Woodruff , Thursday March 10, 2011 during a presentation at VFW post 1590 in Daytona Beach . ( DAVID TUCKER )

Darlene Woodruff and Sharron Blais L/R wipe away tears, Thursday March 10, 2011 during a presentation at VFW post 1590 in Daytona Beach where the ladies got the dog tag of their cousin Army Sgt. Robert Fletcher who was killed in Veitnam in 1968. ( DAVID TUCKER )

Sharron Blais slips the dog tag of her cousin Robert Fletcher over her head, Thursday March 10, 2011 following a presentation at VFW post 1590 in Daytona Beach. Robert Fletcher was killed in Veitnam in 1968 and the tag was found by a Veitnamese man. ( DAVID TUCKER )

Sharron Blais holds her cousin Sgt. Robert Fletcher's dog tag, Thursday March 10, 2011 following a presentation at VFW post 1590 in Daytona Beach. ( DAVID TUCKER