Stroudsburg family witnesses the due the Army pays its dead

[71ragtopgoat 23]

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.d ... WS/6110341

By HOWARD FRANK

Pocono Record Writer

June 11, 2010 Carmen Jankiewicz was making a shopping list when her dogs began barking, signaling she had a visitor.

 

Through the kitchen window of her East Stroudsburg home, she could see a uniformed man and a chaplain approaching.

 

Jankiewicz worked with the Salvation Army, so she thought they were just visiting.

 

But it was official military business.

 

 

Rising through the ranks

Michael "Mikey" Douglas Jankiewicz dreamed of becoming a soldier since he was a child growing up in Ramsey, N.J.

 

"He was big into anything to do with world history," said his father, Tony Jankiewicz.

 

"He loved to play Risk and Stratego."

 

Carmen said that when Mikey was a teenager, he would go into the woods in the middle of the night.

 

"He was going to explore. I'd say 'Mikey, you can't go out there.' 'No,' he'd say, 'I'm on a quest.'"

 

Mikey enlisted in the Army following high school. He rose to the rank of corporal, and was a paratrooper and a sharpshooter. During one training mission, the rope on his parachute tangled around his leg. He hit the ground and shattered his femur.

 

When Mikey returned stateside after the surgery to fix his leg, his family was glum.

 

 

"He was so incredibly pale," Carmen said. "I whispered to Tony, 'Oh my God, he'll never be able to be a Ranger again.'"

 

His father went to give him a shower and started talking about maybe thinking about doing something else.

 

"I heard Mikey laughing. He said, 'I'm fine. I'm going to make my next deployment.'"

 

And he did.

 

 

Secret missions

A master sergeant and a chaplain approached Carmen at home at 10:30 that sunny Friday morning of April 10.

 

Carmen asked them to come around to the back door.

 

"Between the front door and the back door it dawned on me. And I knew what it was."

 

Mikey, an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, Carmen's stepson who she'd nurtured for years, was dead.

 

The 23-year-old died April 9 when the Osprey aircraft carrying his unit crashed during a combat operation in Zabul Province.

 

"They were going into the field for combat," Carmen said.

 

The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey is a "tiltrotor" aircraft. Part airplane, part helicopter, the Osprey can make both vertical and horizontal takeoffs and landings.

 

 

 

The Osprey has been plagued with mechanical problems and has been temporarily grounded several times since it was first introduced in the 1990s.

 

"We have not been told what happened," Carmen said. "Their missions have been very quiet. We are not privy to what they do. We are only told when they leave and when they come back."

 

As a Ranger in Special Operations, Mikey couldn't talk about his work.

 

"Mikey trained us well," Carmen said. "If we asked him what he was doing, he'd look at us and say, 'Guys, if I tell you, I'd have to quiet you.' And then he would laugh and say, 'Can have some of that kielbasa?'"

 

 

'Incredibly honorable process'

From the moment the master sergeant and chaplain visited, the Army enveloped the Jankiewicz family. They weren't alone for weeks.

 

"Soldiers were here 24 hours a day," Carmen said. "They didn't let us drive. They changed my bed sheets. They did my dishes."

 

The U.S. Army's Rangers assign an escort to each soldier when he becomes a Ranger. If a Ranger is killed, the escort brings the body from the field of battle and accompanies it home to the mortuary. The escort even stays with the fallen soldier during the autopsy.

 

The escort also dresses the soldier, and brings him to the funeral parlor.

 

Mikey's escort, Sgt. Michael Weeks of Huntsville, Ala., didn't return to the field until Mikey was buried.

 

"It is an incredibly honorable process," Carmen said.

 

Weeks brought Mikey's Ranger watch and combat boots back from Afghanistan.

 

 

 

The rugged, oversized footwear stands in the corner of the Jankiewiczes' living room, along with photos of their lost son.

 

A triangular wooden case holds the flag that draped the soldier's casket.

 

Inside, the decorations he earned are attached to the quilted lining.

 

Ribbons signify his international deployments. Badges as a Ranger, rifleman, sharpshooter and paratrooper. His corporal bars. Jankiewicz was also awarded the Bronze Star.

 

Michael Douglas Jankiewicz was buried April 20 in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

 

And now, closer to home, a memorial service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in East Stroudsburg.

 

The memorial will include a military service honoring a fallen hero.

[BigBlueQ 7]

Corporal Jankiewicz grew up in Ramsey, where I currently live with my family. When he was brought home the town shut down for a memorial march through the center of town to the funeral parlor where his remains were brought.

 

The sight was amazing. As his vehicle passed, there was not a sound in the entire area. School kids from the high school left campus to watch. A massive American flag was stretched across the main street between two extended firetruck ladders. Times like that reinforce my feelings that we as a country KNOW how to act, no matter what second-rate buffoonish behavior the politicians in Trenton and Washington exhibit.

[chefhunter34 1]

Just re reading this brings tears to my eyes. I wish everyone in society had half the dignity of those that remembered him on the street.

[bry@n 195]

This was upsetting to read. I thank God we have men and women like Cpl. Jankiewicz protecting our country. RIP Cpl. Jankiewicz.

[Krdshrk 3,878]

I teared up reading it. :cry:

[PeteF 1,044]

The military does a great job of trying to make things easier for the families of deceased members of the military active or retired.

 

Recently my brother's father-in-law passed away. He was a master sergeant in WW2. At the funeral, Fort Dix sent over a team to assist with the ceremony. It meant a great deal to my sister-in-law and brother.

 

I wish they would only have to do this for retired veterans who die of old age.