Stacey N. Binning (nee Jones)

FORTY YEARS LATER

Dr Ardel Vietti, aged 35 was taken POW by the North Vietnamese on May 30, 1962 with Archie Emerson Mitchell aged 48, and Daniel Amstutz Gerber aged 2130 May 1962: South Vietnam…

A sister, a daughter, a civilian surgeon.
A husband, a father, an administrator.
A son, a fiancé, a peace missionary.
Three people who had heard God’s call
Had come to help and instead were harmed.
They did no wrong; that mattered not.
They were taken away
To who knows where?
The years passed, and the strain grew.
A wife and four children returned home,
still without her husband, their father.
A young nurse would never marry the missionary;
She was later murdered in the Tet offensive.
Back in Texas, a family still hoped
That their daughter, a sister, a twin
Would come back to them.

Forty years later,
the families still wait,
hearts still grieve,
and people still remember.

Submitted for the May 2002 IWVPA Club Theme Project, “Missing In Action”