WIDENER, JAMES EDWARD
"A Widener has been killed in every major war since the Revolutionary days.
One, two, three, four, five Wideners have died for their country.
And now ......they will mourn a sixth."
Name: James Edward Widener
Rank/Branch: E2/US Marine Corps
Unit: 3rd Recon Company, 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 12 November 1948
Home City of Record: Churchville NY
Date of Loss: 11 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 165454N 1065530E (YD048689)
Status (in 1973): Killed In Action/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: CH46A
Other Personnel In Incident: Dennis R. Christie, Curtis R. Bohlscheid; John
J. Foley; Jose J. Gonzales; Thomas M. Hanratty; Michael W. Havranek; James
W. Kooi, Jim E. Moshier; John S. Oldham; Charles D. Chomel (all missing)
[Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
NETWORK NOTE: In May of 1997, we received a note from a woman correcting an
error in the birth date of this biography. That note generated a "Did you
know him?" question that brought the following memories and then the
additonal news copy - which we asked permission to add here. Unfortunately,
none of the articles had a source noted. Updated Memorial Day 1997]
REMARKS: A/C CRASH-EXPLODED-NO SURVS OBS-J
SYNOPSIS: On 11 June 1967, 1LT Curtis Bohlscheid was the pilot of a CH46A
helicopter inserting a seven-man Marine Force Recon team into a predesignated
area 11 1/2 nautical miles northwest of Dong Ha, South Vietnam -- right on the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). A total of four aircraft were involved in the mission,
two CH46's and two UH1E helicopter gunships. Bohlscheid flew the lead aircraft.
His crew included MAJ John S. Oldham, LCPL Jose J. Gonzales (crew chief), and
PFC Thomas M. Hanratty (crew chief).
Members of the 3rd Recon Company, 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division who
were being inserted were CPL Jim E. Moshier, LCPL Dennis R. Christie, LCPL John
J. Foley III, LCPL Michael W. Havranek, LCPL James W. Kooi, PFC Charles D.
Chomel, and PFC James E. Widener.
The flight departed Dong Ha at about 11:15 a.m. and proceeded to the insertion
location. The gunships made low strafing runs over the landing zone to clear
booby traps and to locate any enemy troops in the area. No enemy fire was
received and no activity was observed. The lead aircraft then began its approach
to the landing zone. At an estimated altitude of 400-600 feet, the helicopter
was observed to climb erratically, similar to an aircraft commencing a loop.
Machinegunmen had been waiting for the opportune time to fire on the aircraft.
Portions of the rear blades were seen to separate from the aircraft and a radio
transmission was received from the aircraft indicating that it had been hit. The
helicopter became inverted and continued out of control until it was seen to
crash by a stream in a steep ravine.
Subsequent efforts by ground units to reach the crash area failed due to a heavy
bunker complex surrounding the site. The ground units inspected the site from
within 500 meters through binoculars and observed no survivors. All eleven
personnel aboard the helicopter were therefore classified Killed In Action, Body
Not Recovered. Other USMC records indicate that the helicopter also burst into
flames just prior to impacting the ground.
-----------------------------------------------------
June 1967
MARINE JAMES E. WIDENER, CHILI CENTER, KILLED IN WAR
Marine Pfc. James E. Widener, 18, of 135 Scottsville-Chili Road, Chili
Center, has been killed in action in Vietnam just 14 months after his
graduation from Churchville-Chili High School.
He was killed near Dong Ha, South Vietnam, on June 11 when a helicopter he
was aboard was shot down. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jay C. Widener, were
informed he was missing on June 15 and were notified of his death on
Tuesday.
Mrs. Widener said that her son had a long time ambition to join the Marine
Corps and he enlisted Aug. 25, 1966, two months after his graduation. He
was sent to Vietnam on Jan. 20 with the Third Marine Division.
Pfc. Widener was a high school athlete, earning letters in track,
wrestling and soccer. He played on the 1965 Section 5 championship soccer
team and was selected for All-County soccer and wrestling teams.
His parents were informed in a telegram from Gen. Wallace M Greene, Jr.,
Marine Corps commandant, that Pfc. Widener was returning with five other
Marines from a five-day reconnaissance foot patrol into hostile territory.
The helicopter was shot down just south of the Demilitarized Zone and 12
miles north of Dong Ha.
His father is a Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. employee and a former
professional middleweight boxer and semi-professional football player.
One of Private Widener's brothers, Peter, 21, a senior in the New York
State University College at Buffalo, won the lightweight boxing district
championship in the Niagra District of the Amateur Athletic Union in 1965
and 1966.
Besides his parents, Pfc. Widener is survived by three brothers, Jay Jr.,
Peter and Mark; and a sister, Julie. He was a member of the Lutheran Church
of Our Savior in Gates.
-----------------------------------------------
November 1967
Faces and Places in Chili
by Betty Greenfield
LEST WE FORGET.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, many of us in the Town of Chili will
have different memories. There are many kinds of memories - Happy and sad
ones. Thanksgiving Day this year will be one of sad memories at the home of
the Jay C. Wideners' on Chili-Scottsville Road, formerly the Stage Road.
The tragic news of the death of their young son, James E. Widener reached
them on July 4, 1967. He was killed on his mother's birthday, the 11th of
June.
The family will be remembering, with pride in their hearts, that Christmas
day of 1966 at the dusky hour of 5 p.m., when James waved to them from the
window of the airplane which airbore him to his destination in service to
his country.
Memories for James' father, Jay, will be of those silent thoughts of his
brother, Richard S., who was killed during the invasion of Guam while
serving with the 1st Marine Corps. Memories of other Thanksgiving days will
be with James' grandmother, Mrs. Edith Widener. Her husband was gassed and
machine gunned in World War I. Jay Widener served in World War II in the Air
Force.
The James E. Widener Memorial Fund, opened at the Marine Midland Bank,
Chili-Paul Plaza, Chili Avenue, by the graduating class, will make it
possible for a scholarship bond and symbolic trophy to be presented each
year to an outstanding athlete of good character and Scholastic record. The
presentation will be made at the Father-Son Banquet. A memorial honor
plaque is to be installed in the school with the names of those students who
have given their lives for their country.
HOWARD H. Widener, Jay's grandfather, lived in our area. In his younger
years he was a farmer, but a wound in the leg, suffered in a hunting
accident, marked the end of farming and the beginning of the study of law.
He majored in criminal law, often going to Washington to try a case in the
Supreme Court. He was District Attorney of Monroe County. He was
tremendously interested in genealogy and spent half his lifetime traveling
the cities and towns of the United States, from coast to coast collecting,
searching, and compiling any and all information he could obtain of those
whose name was Widener. The Widener book shows the results of years of work.
---------------------------
'We must stop somewhere'
War-scarred Family Looks Back
May 30, 1968
By JOHN McALEENAN
A Widener has been killed in every major war since the Revolutionary days.
One, two, three, four, five Wideners have died for their country.
And now this Memorial Day they will mourn a sixth.
Marine Pvt. James Widener, 18, his last breath a sheet of flame as the
blazing helicopter in which he was riding screamed into a jungle hilltop in
Vietnam.
That was last year, on June 11, and the anguish at the Jay Widener home at
Scottsville-Chili Road has had a chance to dip below the surface a
little.
But today, Memorial Day, it will be new again, and there will be moments for
both reappraisal and a search for something to fill the void.
Jay Widener and his wife are very much involved in this Memorial Day.
Mrs. Widener will be a Gold Star Mother, and will ride in the parade.
There will be a ceremony it the Chill Town Hall. Their son's high school
graduating class will present them something. They are not sure what.
It is not enough, the words, parades, but it's all there is, so you do the
best you can.
"This is a very big day for us," says Widener. "God knows it was a
sacrifice, but I have to think it was a necessary sacrifice. We have to
stop this somewhere."
Jim called his parents from California just before he left for Vietnam. "He
never whimpered or talked bad about the war, but toward the end I could tell
he was scared. I know he was in a hurry to hang up before he cried, or
something like that."
The U.S. Marine Corps regrets to announce there was nothing left of Pvt.
James Widener to send home.
But his presence in the Widener home is everywhere. In the living room, a
giant color portrait, very stiff and formal in his Marine dress blues. More
pictures on the mantel. In the dining room, a wall of medals. Outside, the
pool he helped to build. His canoe down by the brook. And out on the very
edge of the patio, a memorial built by his brother.
A memorial that tells of love. "Pete wanted to do something. He just
couldn't stand to sit around. They were very close. So Pete went to all the
places they had been together, the Boy Scout camps, the woods where they
went rabbit hunting, the mountains, and he gathered a rock from each place,
and he built this for his brother.
The memorial has an old M-1 rifle stuck in it, with a helmet riveted to the
butt end, a flagpole, and small brass plaque that tells when James Widener
was born, and when he died. KIA, it says. Killed in action.
"Jim could have gone on to college, but he saw what was happening to Pete.
He saw Pete really sweat every time his marks dropped a little, so he
decided to enlist and get it out of the way. He came and asked me to sign
the papers, and I said if that's your decision I'll go along with it."
The Vietnam war is right because our country is right, Widener feels. "If I
thought all this was just political, I'd be tremendously upset. But then,
it's hard to separate the anguish you feel from your ideas about the war.
You can't help but be a little bitter, do you know what I mean?"
Because the war has become so personal to Jay Widener, he knows exactly how
he feels about those people who oppose the war.
"They are just cowards. They are not like my son. He wrote us a letter and
said he would throw them in the river if they were still around when he got
home. He thought he was doing an awful lot of good over there. And he
couldn't understand what the demonstrators hoped to prove. He asked us in a
letter: 'What do they expect to get out of this?'
When the two Marine officers came to tell the Wideners their son was dead, a
not uncurious thing happened.
Jay Widener, on the far side of 40, went to see about enlisting in the
Seabees. His oldest son, Pete, turned in his student deferment and asked
about enlisting in the Air Force.
In the end, they decided it was revenge, and it would kill Mrs. Widener if
anything happened to them.
Widener, who has another son, Mark, 15, says he thinks one boy is enough
for the Vietnam cause.
"If one of my other sons had to go. I'd say no. I'd say that's enough.
Let me go instead. My beliefs should not be their beliefs. There are other
boys who can go."
Country and community are very important to the Wideners. On Memorial Day,
it becomes even more important.
Widener says; "A man, to be any good, has to love his country, and uphold
its laws. Otherwise, he's a misfit, don't you see?"
--------------------------------------------
1986
Ceremony to honor soldier missing in Vietnam War
By ELLEN ROSEN
It has been nearly 19 years since U.S. Marine Corps Pvt. James Edward
Widener disappeared while on a helicopter reconnaissance mission in Vietnam.
But tomorrow, Widener's family, friends and veterans in his hometown of
Chili will gather at a special ceremony to remember him.
At the ceremony, Widener's parents, Lenore and Jay Widener, will present
American Legion Post 1830 with a POW-MIA medal they were awarded by Congress
a year ago in honor of their son. The medal, engraved with 'Honoring
Americans still missing. You are not forgotten,' is one of a series
awarded by congressional act in 1983 to families of war prisoners and
missing servicemen.
The medal, in turn, will be placed in a case inside the post's Widener Room,
a memorial established in honor of Widener and his uncle, Richard Widener,
who was killed in World War II. The ceremony will be at 1 p.m. at the post,
450 Chili-Scottsville Road.
Lenore Widener called the ceremony 'a very nice gesture,' and said the
family hadn't participated much in post activities since her son's death
"because of all the memories." Anticipation of tomorrow's ceremony, planned
by post Commander Ramond Goodburlet, has left her with mixed emotions - both
pride that her son will be remembered by others and the grief of remembering
him herself.
"It brings memories back and sets you back," she said. "Of course, you can
never forget."
Widener had joined the Marines in his senior year at Churchville-Chili High
School, and had gone into the service upon graduation. He was 18 when the
heliicopter he and seven others were flying in over Quang Tri province was
shot down in June 1967. He is officially listed as missing in action.
"I guess they were just blown up," she said. "The details are sketchy. His
body has never been found."
Goodburlet said the ceremony honors Widener and others who were lost during
the war.
"We have to stick with the POW-MIAs who are in southeast Asia, " Goodburlet
said. "We can't let it get out of the public's mind."
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
When I was a year old, my mom went back to work. She found the best sitter
possible. This wonderful woman had four sons. Jimmy was the third one. He
was born a few months before my older sister. Jimmy's younger brother Mark,
was six months older than I was. I became a member of their family, and it
lasted for many, many years.
Jimmy was five years older than me, and in those days, that was a big
difference.
I still can picture the smile he always had, that will never change.
The family had the only pool in the area, so you can imagine that on the hot
days of the summer months, it was filled will all sorts of people. What
fun. By the way, Jimmy did get a sister. His mom had a fifth child, Julie,
in 1965. Julie was one lucky little girl, with those four brothers. Before
Jimmy left, there was a promise that she wouldn't cut her hair til he
returned home. It grew real long, and then some years later, Julie did cut
her hair.
I turned 14 on June 9, 1967, and two days later Jimmy was shot down in
VietNam.
It also happened to be his mother's birthday. I will never forget that day,
nor will I ever forget Jimmy. He will always be there in my mind as a
brother and I will never forget him for as long as I live.
I am going to be 44 in June, and my son, Adam James, turns 18 in August. I
often look in his face and wonder what Jimmy would of come to be, and thank
God that there is no war like VietNam, and hope there never will be again.
In answer to your original question, "do you know him?" Yes, I do. And I
remember him like it was yesterday.
November 12, 1948 is the correct date of his birthday. Thanks for helping to
correct this for him.
I would love for everyone to know that behind the name there is a person.
Over the years, sadly, I have lost contact with the family. The oldest
brother passed away, along with Jimmy's mom. And they have had a few tragic
things happen, but above all that, hope was never given up that he would
return. I guess it never is.
Kathleen
----------------------------------------------
For the crew of the CH46A lost on June 11, 1967, death seems a certainty.
For hundreds of others, however, simple answers are not possible. Adding to
the torment of nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in
Southeast Asia is the certain knowledge that some Americans who were known
to be prisoners of war were not released at the end of the war. Others were
suspected to be prisoners, and still others were in radio contact with
would-be rescuers when last seen alive. Many were known to have survived
their loss incidents, only to disappear without a trace.
The problem of Americans still missing torments not only the families of
those who are missing, but the men who fought by their sides, and those in
the general public who realize the full implication of leaving men
unaccounted for at the end of a war.
Tragically, many authorities believe there are hundreds of Americans still
alive in captivity in Southeast Asia today. What must they be thinking of
us? What will our next generation say if called to fight if we are unable to
bring these men home from Southeast Asia?
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