Dec. 1, 2019

Stories of Sacrifice - POW/MIAs - SGT Durrell Tidwell EP01

Stories of Sacrifice - POW/MIAs - SGT Durrell Tidwell EP01

SGT Durrell Tidwell - 200th CAC

SGT Durrell Tidwell - Was born in New Mexico and served with the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines at the outbreak of WW2. He died on 30 July 1942 at POW Camp Cabanatuan and after the war was reburied as an Unknown at the Manila American Cemetery. 

This is his story of Sacrifice to our Country and his family's efforts to get him identified and brought home for a honorable burial next to his parents. Please share his story with your friends and family! You can also download this episode on iTunes under Stories of Sacrifice.

CASE UPDATE - A disinterment proposal was issued for SGT Tidwell and the other 18 POWs who were buried in Common Grave 212 at Cabanatuan. Identifications and repatriations will happen over the next several years. 

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John Bear:   0:01
Welcome to stories or sacrifice. World War two. American P O W /M IA's in the Philippines. This is a production of US POW/MIA Family Locating, I'm the lead researcher and your host, John Bear. We're joined today by the great niece of Sergeant Durrell A. Tidwell, who served with 200 Coast Artillery Regiment, died at POW Camp Cabanatuan on 30 July 1942 and is currently buried, as unknown at the U. S military cemetery outside of Manila, Philippines. His family is trying to get him identified and brought home for an honorable burial next to his parents.

Elizabeth Baker:   1:48
My name is Elizabeth Baker and my husband's great uncle Durrell Tidwell is my POW. He was born April 13th 1920 in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, and he was a lot older than my grandma. So she doesn't have a lot of memories of him growing up, she members that he would widdle little toys for her that she could play with she members like him driving her around in their old car and riding horses with him. Yeah, but she really only has a couple of memories. So she was eight when he left when he enlisted and she does remember, she has kind of a cool memory, the day that he left, He like, snuck into the house and hid behind the door and surprised his mom because I think they didn't think they were gonna get to see him before he was shipping out for the war. But he got to come home, so he got to surprise them. And then the next day he had to leave. So she doesn't have a lot of memories, because, I mean, like I said, he was a lot older than her, but, um, she does  remembers him as being like, very funny and very kind and always wanting to make everyone around him smile and just being a really good big brother.

John Bear:   3:12
How much, how old is his sister now?

Elizabeth Baker:   3:17
She's 87.

John Bear:   3:19
Uh, yeah, that that other family I'm working with, Frank. Frank Kunik is the service members brother. Still still living Frank Kunik Sr. and that's about the same age. Really? Yeah, Yeah. Frank was really young when his brother went away to the Philippines too.

Elizabeth Baker:   3:39
Mmm. So she was eight when he left and 10 when he died.

John Bear:   3:44
Okay. Did he ever write home to the family or send any letters?

Elizabeth Baker:   3:52
She said she don't have any recollection of any letters or anything from him once he left. I'm sure he did. I mean, I'm sure he wrote to his parents, but she was such a little girl. I think she just doesn't. She doesn't remember it. And if there were letters, they're not. We don't have him anymore.

John Bear:   4:13
Was she the only sibling to Durrell?

Elizabeth Baker:   4:17
No, there were seven.

John Bear:   4:19
But she's the last. That's living.

Elizabeth Baker:   4:20
Seven. She's the last yes.

John Bear:   4:23
Wow, now did he have any other brothers that served, do you know?

Elizabeth Baker:   4:28
Yes. Um, their brother Gaston served in the navy at around the same time, but he made it home and got married and had kids. And then he was well into his eighties when he passed.

John Bear:   4:43
Wow, so he served - he went into the army. What? What unit did he serve with, do you know?

Elizabeth Baker:   4:54
200 Coastal artillery?

John Bear:   4:56
Ah, that's right. Okay. So that they're in the Mexico National Guard unit, and Ah, yeah, and ah. Then they were federalized and sent over the Philippines. I think they were sent over there and June or July of 1941.

Elizabeth Baker:   5:11
And I think they should take some pretty big losses.

John Bear:   5:14
They did. And, you know, out of all the units that were in the Philippines Ah, they have the most that are actually missing in action. And the most at Cabanatuan that were that died at Cabanatuan and that are still listed as missing in action. There's I think there was, like, 90 something of them.

John Bear:   5:41
Do you know anything? You know? Like, was he ever wounded in action before the fall of the Philippines? Or, you know,

Elizabeth Baker:   5:47
not that I know of.

John Bear:   5:49
Okay, So when they surrendered, he was probably down on the on the end of the Bataan  Peninsula and, uh so he would have been a part of the Bataan Death march? Um, do you know anything about the march or any of that?

Elizabeth Baker:   6:07
So the only thing I know about him and the march was that a guy that was there with him and was liberated from the camp that was from his unit. Told my, told Durrell's parents that he fell during the march and was shot and left in a roadside grave. But now we know that that's not true. And he actually died of dysentery in the camp. 

John Bear:   6:38
Do you know who that? Did the family ever say who that soldier was that told them  that?

Elizabeth Baker:   6:43
Man I think his name is Ted Williams.

John Bear:   6:47
Ted Williams. I'll have to look him up.

Elizabeth Baker:   6:50
Wasn't somebody that they helped get with somebody that they really knew. I think it was somebody that reached out to them after, like, several years later.

John Bear:   7:00
I have to look him up and see if he's if he's still living. 

Elizabeth Baker:   7:05
Oh, yeah, that would be cool.

John Bear:   7:07
Yeah, yeah.

Elizabeth Baker:   7:09
I'll see if I can find his, Um, I'll see if I can check and figure out what his actual name is. Like this full name and see if I can find anything.

John Bear:   7:22
But with the case, So did Did your grandmother did she contact, is she the one that contacted the army about, um, trying to get him identified? Or did they contact her?

Elizabeth Baker:   7:34
No, I contacted the Army.

John Bear:   7:36
Oh, you did so that so the army had never reached out in the last 5 to 6 years to say - Hey, we could possibly identify him if we have DNA.

Elizabeth Baker:   7:46
No, no, she didn't even know that. That I don't think she believed me when I told her that I was call. Yeah, I think she thought that I was crazy.

John Bear:   8:02
Oh, no kidding. What  are her thoughts about it now?

Elizabeth Baker:   8:07
Oh, she, I know she cried a lot. So, in, like, the 1970's, her and her sisters got money together and bought a plot, bought a grave in their family plot in Dora, New Mexico. And they had a headstone made for him. And they put it on it because she just felt that everybody needs a marker. Otherwise, no one will know that he existed. You know that he was on this earth. So they had this gravestone made. And there's this empty grave there. Well, nobody knew that it was empty. That was never something that we talked about tell one day we were talking about it and she said to me like very calmly. She was like, Well, honey, he's not there. And I really thought she was on, like, some grandma metaphysical stuff, you know, like because we were talking about going back to the cemetery alone, Like taking her to the cemetery to visit. She was like, he's not there. And I thought she was talking about, like, his soul or whatever. And then she told me after that No, he's really not there because they never brought his body home. And that was the first I'd ever heard of it. That was the first most of our family had ever heard of it. We didn't really know. Oh, my God, That tripped me out. I did not. That did not sit well with me at all.  I'm a veteran, so I knew a little bit about DPAA's mission, and I was like, Nope, I'm calling, like, I looked him up and he was listed active pursuit. So, like, nope I'm calling. We're not gonna do this, so But I really think she thought I was crazy. And then when the DNA swabs came in the mail, she was like, Are you sure this is gonna work? Is this really a thing. So but then she cried when she found out that so he was preliminarily, identified in like the 1950's. He has an X number. It's x 18 05 So when she found out that he was in an American cemetery in Manila and he wasn't in the side of the road know, she had thought for all these years that FOR 76 years she thought he was just left on the side of the road somewhere. So when she found out that he was in the American cemetery in Manila and there were markers and his name was on the wall, she cried for days like she was so happy.

Elizabeth Baker:   10:41
She just said it was like, a really big relief to know that that he was somewhere. I mean, it would be an even bigger relief to bring him home. But she spent all those years thinking that he had just been dumped somewhere.

John Bear:   10:55
Yeah, that's what A lot of these families, you know, that we've contacted that That's what a lot of them think. Um, they think, you know, right after right after Bataan fell they passed with in the in the prison camps. Uh, when the When the Philippines was liberated and they exhumed all these graves and they couldn't make identification. The families were sent these telegrams that were saying, you know, basically that they had no clue where their loved one was located And, uh, if if any information came forward in the future, they would reopen the case. But what the families didn't know was these guys were actually buried in a grave. Ah, in Manila American Cemetery. They're buried in a grave under across that said, You know, that basically says Here lies a comrade in arms, only unknown but God and ah So these families went on for like you were just saying 76 plus years now and they don't realize that Ah, you know, they could get their loved one identified. That's the sad part. There's not. I don't think our government's done a very good job of making it known. Things could happen. So it sounds like she's kind of excited about it?

Elizabeth Baker:   12:15
Oh, my God, Yeah, she's I honestly think, even if I if I'm not successful and I never bring him home, she has gained, like such a sense of peace about it. Just knowing that that he's somewhere, you know. She wants him home and she wants to put him in the plot next to his parents, and she wants all of that. But at least she doesn't have... At least she. Some of her questions were answered. I think,

John Bear:   12:39
Yeah, well, it's always, you know, I'm sure it was always something in the back of her mind every day, thinking that he was lost. Yeah, never to be found. At least At least she knows that he's in that cemetery... that's crazy.

Elizabeth Baker:   13:00
So this is really I don't know. It really hits home for me because I am a veteran and, like the idea of one let alone thousands of service members left behind just bothers me, but also because my little brother was really, really, really injured in Afghanistan in 2010 and it was very bad. And the Red Cross called my parents and, you know, it was like there were several hours when we didn't know if he was gonna make it to Germany and then make it to Walter Reed or if he was going to die on the way. But they told us to be prepared and and he didn't like he made. It's Walter Reed. And he's made a really, really remarkable recovery.

John Bear:   13:47
Oh, good.

Elizabeth Baker:   13:48
And to me, I just think like I remember how horrible those couple of days were when we didn't know, you know, it was like, we don't really know if we don't know what happened. We don't know if he's alive right now. If he's dead right now, we don't know what's gonna happen. And it was the most horrible feeling of my life. Yeah, And then to think that she has dealt with I mean, something similar to that was obviously eventually they I mean, eventually, your hope runs out. You just know that he's not going to come home. But originally, they weren't even told that they were just told that he was lost,

John Bear:   14:27
right? Yeah, that was missing in action. And

Elizabeth Baker:   14:29
yeah, it takes that

John Bear:   14:30
takes us now. Now, what takes us days or weeks to learn? Back then it took him months and years.

Elizabeth Baker:   14:37
Yeah. Yeah. So I just can't imagine that she has dealt that she's lived with that for 77 years and I mean, I thought I was gonna go crazy after two days with my brother, and my brother is still here. You know, I can go see him and talk to him whenever, but I don't. I can't imagine what that would be like to know not only that you lost him in a war, but that there's no place for you to go to honor him. And there's no you still have so many unanswered questions. So that's another one of my Not only do I want to do it for her and for him, that's another one of my big pushes is just to be like I can't imagine as a sister dealing with that for that long.

John Bear:   15:20
Right? So he died at Cabanatuan. What grave was he in?

Elizabeth Baker:   15:27

John Bear:   15:28
Buried in 212. How many? How many men were buried with him that day?

Elizabeth Baker:   15:32

John Bear:   15:34
19 total. Including him?

Elizabeth Baker:   15:36
Yes, 19 with him.

John Bear:   15:38
How many were were identified after the war?

Elizabeth Baker:   15:41
So nine are listed as resolved one is listed as closed because he was a  Norwegian civilian. He was like a Merchant Marine.

John Bear:   15:54
Yeah. Ingrid, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a while since I worked on your case.

Elizabeth Baker:   16:02
Uh huh. And all the rest are not identified.

John Bear:   16:04
Missing in Action. Um, how long have you been working on in this case?

Elizabeth Baker:   16:11
A little over a year.

John Bear:   16:14
What was interesting? I remember now thinking back how I ran into ya on Facebook.

Elizabeth Baker:   16:19
Yes, Yes. Be okay, because I called DPAA - I started the case. Okay. I need to find somebody that knows more about this than I do. So I made a post asking for help, and you responded, And you're like, Is this your grandma? And does he live here because you have been working on Cole?

John Bear:   16:35
Yeah, I was working on Cole is actually working on Cole for another organization that I volunteer with Purple Hearts Reunited. And I had had bought a bunch of Cole's mothers personal belongings. Who is her Gold Star Mother's hat and some other stuff that was on eBay. And, uh, that's what got me on the Cole But then I started researching the grave, and I already had a bunch of this information. And then I seen your post on Facebook, and I said, this This is more than coincidence.

Elizabeth Baker:   17:10
Yeah. Yeah, That was so crazy.

John Bear:   17:13
It was It was and ah, So we We've pretty much identified most of the families. And I know you've been You've been so proactive and calling these other families to get them to provide Family Reference Samples.

Elizabeth Baker:   17:28
So I'm a seven.

John Bear:   17:30
So you've got seven out of the

Elizabeth Baker:   17:32
12. 12. 12 will be 60%. Mmm. We have seven,

John Bear:   17:38
and I don't want to put you on the spot. But what is your thoughts about this 60% policy?

Elizabeth Baker:   17:47
I mean, I get it. I understand it. Like they have to prioritize. The can't dig. I'm not sure they're grossly underfunded and understaffed. I'm not sure it's not. Maybe a little bit arbitrary. Where did 60% come from? Like why not 50? Why not? And especially because, Well, you know, I don't know either, cause my like, they think they know which grave mine is in. But we can't get an individual disinterment because they are keeping them all together, and they won't do anything until we have the 60% of the family reference samples, so I don't know, on the one hand are a Really I have a lot of questions about it But then I do understand that it needs that there needs to be a way to prioritize it. And if they don't have enough information about the grave then, of course, they're gonna go dig up another one before they do mine.

John Bear:   18:49
right, right?

Elizabeth Baker:   18:50
But I do. I mean, I do find it a little bit frustrating.

John Bear:   18:53
Well, I know a lot of you know, some of the other families that I've been working with, everybody's wanting them to switch to a DNA lead process where they actually exhume the graves and get the service member's DNA, you know, the POW /MIA's DNA and then get all that into a database and then that does inquire. They've already got a match. I mean, that would make, But like you said, it does come down. I mean, that's a big chore in itself, but it does come down to funding and having available lab space in the and, uh, things like that. And I think the DPAA could do a better job of actually partnering with other organizations and and, uh, nonprofit agencies to actually get this accomplished. But that's that's a totally different story.

Elizabeth Baker:   19:42
I mean, I honestly Honestly, I just wish they would do or of like, even if they weren't in a target families because every family that I So I've my family and then the other six none of them had ever been contacted. So I mean, if even if they're not gonna target, like maybe some kind of public information campaign, because people just have no idea.

John Bear:   20:07
Right? And that's another thing that we've talked about is, um, you know, look, for like, the Vietnam and  Korea MIA's They actually had a programmer in place where they actually researched them all and and went in after the families and got family reference samples. I think you know, both both wars there in the 90 percentile of having family reference samples on file, but for World War Two, they haven't and their under 10%. Last I heard they were like 6 or 7% is all the DNA they have on file for World War Two. And they need to develop a program, a public program where they actually go target these World War two families. You know, the longer that we sit here back here and wait, The longer the D N A. In the grave degrades, and they might not get  DNA and longer that families memories fade. You know, it's just it's like, uh, the Cole family that we were just talking about here a few minutes ago when you when you talk to it was a cousin and she didn't even realize that Cole was her cousin,

Elizabeth Baker:   21:22
Oh, that has happened more than once. People are like, Oh, no, I think you have the wrong family. Have to be like, Oh, no, ma'am, I assure you I do not like take some convincing number one that I'm not some crazy psycho person, but also because I mean and some of the people that I've found, they're just not I'm going there, not distant relations, But they're not. They're young, younger, you know, And they never met the person. And if nobody ever talked about him, then you know, they just don't know that that is their family member,

John Bear:   21:54
right? And it's just like it's just like your grandmother. She never talked about her brother. You know, you found out about the grave.

Elizabeth Baker:   22:04
Yeah. We knew that he had been in the death march, but I think we all just thought that he had been brought home because there is a grave. So we all like nobody ever questioned it. And then one day we were just sitting down talking, and I don't know. She just said that. I'm telling you, it even took me a minute to realize, Like what she had just said to me. And they didn't. I was like, Okay. No, I am now obsessed and we're gonna make this happen.

John Bear:   22:30
Exactly. Exactly. So how many? How many have you? How many reference samples are on file now for for ? Okay, there is Seven, you need?

Elizabeth Baker:   22:42
Yeah. 12. So have five more. now these last five are proving quite elusive.

John Bear:   22:52
Yeah, and it's and it's hard, you know, because because when you when you're not the official army calling

Elizabeth Baker:   23:01
Oh, yeah, that definitely makes I mean I definitely lead with, like, here is the link to the DPAA profile. And here's the DPAA's number, and I really would prefer you to talk to them than to me. But they're not going to call you, so let me just give you some information.

John Bear:   23:17
Yeah, it's unfortunate. You know, I just had another case with the 200 Coast artillery. It was Juan Gutierrez. He was actually identified in 1950. He was sent home and buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery Well through Ah, John Eakins lawsuit, they in them exhuming those graves for John's cousin. They determined that Juan Gutierrez was not in his grave in Santa Fe. He was actually in the DPAA lab in Hawaii. So the the Army, I guess it's signed a case worker, too, to him. And they tried to find the family. And without, without any luck, for my understanding. So they started running ads in the Santa Fe newspaper requesting if there was any family to for them to contact the Army Casualty. Well, they ran these ads for a few months, and then, uh, everything went quiet. Well, here about a month ago, month and 1/2 ago. I read a newspaper article. Actually, I've seen it in Stars and Stripes, first on Facebook. Then I went to the newspaper article in the Santa Fe newspaper, and ah, the army and DPAA went to the federal court there and was trying to get that grave in the Santa Fe National Cemetery exhumed to get the remains out of there so they could actually identify who was in that grave. So, I went back to the case real quick and I actually found the family. Ah, the family had moved away from Santa Fe in like, 1956 and they moved to Flagstaff, Arizona. So it I don't think a caseworker was ever really assigned to that grave, to be honest with you, because any genealogist with a little know how would have been able to. Because I linked it all to his sister's Social Security Death Index and all her last name's from her marriages and then found her obituary where she died in 2001. The family had put in a thank you in the Flagstaff newspaper. Thank you to the certain members of the public for providing services to her and all that other stuff and then listed the family's name right there in the newspaper - all the different families. So I went ahead and I typed up a new email with all the supporting documentation and I sent it to Greg Gardner who is the manager, the branch manager at the Army Casualty and said, Hey, here's this family. You might want to assign a caseworker to follow up and actually find out who the primary next to kin is and who's authorized to handle the remains and things like that. You know, the the official Army deal, because I don't care who's the primary Next of Kin is. When I do my research, I just make sure they're viable DNA donor. Uh um, and I'll let the Army sort out the rest. I kind of disagree with World War Two cases, having to identify all these certain members of the family, but anyway, ah, um, I sent that email and I never heard a word back. So about two weeks later, I went ahead and I called a stepdaughter that I had identified, and I talked to her and she said, Yeah, that some lady did call her and that she passed him on to the blood family. And so it did get handled. Thank God. Yeah, but ah, yeah, It was just a simple, a simple case, and I don't understand why they didn't identify this family originally, but anyway, um, I know you've been very proactive in trying to search out these families and talk to them. You've said a lot of them were very surprised when they got the call from your the email.

Elizabeth Baker:   27:33
Oh, yeah, yeah, but all except for one. There's one family that I contacted that were like, No, we don't want to do anything. We don't want to disturb the grave like it's again like it's our belief that he is where he is and that's final resting place, and he just won't leave him there. But aside from that everybody else. I mean, they've all been really willing  to help.

John Bear:   27:58
Yeah, and you know, that brings up a great point. You know, that brings up a great point when a family thinks that they believe in the sanctity of the grave and I understand where they're coming from. But what they don't realize is it's not all of one. Yes. Not all him in that grave, these remains were all co mingled. So there's probably two or three different men parts and pieces of two or three different. Oh, POWs in that grave, you know? Yeah, that's the sad thing. Uh

Elizabeth Baker:   28:32
huh. Yeah. I was really disappointed to hear that, but, I mean, that's fine. There's I have 19 and I only need 12. So it's okay that there is one or two you that don't want to participate Because at least I have You know, I have more to - I have more to try to work with,

John Bear:   29:01
right? How is as the DPAA and the Army Casually been pretty responsive to you?

Elizabeth Baker:   29:08
No, man. I think I am a giant pain to them.

John Bear:   29:12
Your case manager hasn't ignored you have they?

Elizabeth Baker:   29:17
No, I'm pretty sure that No, I I don't really I'm not easily ignored. I don't really take that well - I'm pretty sure that my case manager just like winces when he checks his email every day in hopes that there is not one from me. For the most part, they've been okay that they just um yeah, I don't know They're kind of crazy about information. Like they took me forever to get a list of the men who have reference samples.

John Bear:   29:49
So they actually gave you that list, though.

Elizabeth Baker:   29:51
They did give me that. Yes, but I had to ask, and I had to go dig through SOP's and I had to tell them like, No, I don't. It was It was very much a lot of like, Okay. Are you saying you're unwilling to do that? Or you're unable to do that? Like there's a lot of semantics and reading regulations and saying like, Okay, there's nothing that says that you can't give me this. This is not a privacy issues. I'm not asking for the name of the person that gave the sample,

John Bear:   30:19
But they actually gave you the name of the POWs who do have family reference. samples on file?

Elizabeth Baker:   30:23
Yes... well no. No, they didn't.

John Bear:   30:28
They just gave you the numbers.

Elizabeth Baker:   30:31
No, I gave them a list of the families that I had contacted, and they confirmed who had samples.

John Bear:   30:40
Okay. Okay. Okay.

Elizabeth Baker:   30:44
I was like our compromise.

John Bear:   30:48
Okay. So that you don't know, You only gave them. So you only know of the seven families you don't know. Okay. Okay.

Elizabeth Baker:   31:00
I know the seven that have samples on file right now.

John Bear:   31:04
Have you filed a disinterment request?

Elizabeth Baker:   31:10
Yes. The individual one.

John Bear:   31:12
Yes. You want him exhumed?

Elizabeth Baker:   31:16
Yes, but no response. And technically, they're supposed to update you every 30 days. So every week or so I Every few weeks, I send them another email asking for an update, and sometimes they update. And sometimes they don't. I mean, I think, really. Ah, lot of it is just that they don't have anything new to tell me like that. It's just a huge process that it has to go through.

John Bear:   31:45
Right. All right, boy, it sure would be nice to know, You know, if if they actually have, you know, I have assigned a researcher to this case and if they're actually pursuing the families,

Elizabeth Baker:   32:04
Yeah, I have no idea. If that's I just I don't think so, because I would think that. Then when I contacted families, they would say like, Oh, yes, somebody already talked to, you know, wouldn't be like this is the first time that I've ever heard of it,

John Bear:   32:21
right? Right. Because, you know, in some of these other cases, I ran into where? Where? That the Army has assigned a genealogist and and I've talked to the families after the genealogist the Army genealogist calls them. So I just I just wondered if they actually put your case to a higher priority. And assigned a genealogist to the case and that there were actually working on it. Interesting to know if they did...

Elizabeth Baker:   32:54
No, I don't think so. That would be awesome.

John Bear:   33:00
Yeah, it would be. It would be in according to their policy when it when a family calls in or when a family, it's starting to work on the case. That case gets moved up to a higher priority where they do this. But it doesn't sound like in this case, they did it so and that's that's that's their policy.

Elizabeth Baker:   33:20
I mean, maybe they have, and I would be amazing. But if they have,

John Bear:   33:28
they should they would've updated, I would have thought they would updated you and let you know that. in one of the many e mails you sent.

Elizabeth Baker:   33:38
No, I haven't been told that.

John Bear:   33:40
Okay. Is there anything that... I guess we'll close this little bit. Here is there anything that you want. Listeners, anybody to know, other than if you get contacted by a family or a genealogist please provide FRS sample.

Elizabeth Baker:   33:59
Yes, it's not a scam. It's not anything. And it's not crazy, and it's real! Yeah, I just I just I mean, we can't We can't leave them over there that can't be known, but only to God for 76 more years, Like we gotta do something to bring him home.

John Bear:   34:20
I agree. Well, I want to thank you for getting on here in doing this with me. It's ah, it's kind of tough, you know, when you have to talk about it sometimes. And, uh, I'm hoping for just for his sister's sake, that this happens real quick for her before she

Elizabeth Baker:   34:43
I know,

John Bear:   34:45
you know, because because even even if they exhumed the grave today, it's still be a few years down the road before they even make an identification. Unfortunately,

Elizabeth Baker:   34:55
yeah, I know. It's a very, very long process.

John Bear:   34:59
It is... definitely is so well, Elizabeth, I want to thank you for doing this and, uh, thank you for your Service and your brother's Service, please let him know that okay. And if you have any questions or anymore comments after we get off, I mean, please feel free to let me know. So it was great talking to you today.

Elizabeth Baker:   35:27
Yes, you too.

John Bear:   35:31
Again, I want to take a minute and thank Elizabeth and the Tidwell family for bringing this story about Durrell and his sacrifice for our Country during World War Two. It is our hope that each and every one of these men will someday be identified and brought home to their loved ones. This has been a production of the US POW/MIA Family Locating. You can find us on the web at