{"id":109156,"date":"2019-09-20T11:36:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T15:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109156"},"modified":"2019-09-20T11:36:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T15:36:45","slug":"column-a-confederate-yankee-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109156","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: A Confederate Yankee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Bill Mayers<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Coming home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Bill Mayers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerald Bernard Raeymacker will be coming home. He’s been\nmissing since 1950. His remains were identified Aug. 9, 2019. He was a sergeant\nin the 57th Field Artillery Battalion, Provisional Battery B, which featured\nthe 105mm howitzer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went missing Dec. 6, 1950, during the battle at the\nChosin Reservoir in Korea, known to his fellow soldiers as the Frozen\nChosin. He had enlisted in or near Dunkirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sgt. Raemacker was a great uncle to my son-in-law Matt\nBriggs. His remains are to return, date yet to be determined, as is his\neventual burial. Sixty-nine years. War is never quick and simple. Combatants\nare still being found, identified and returned home ages after the war is\nofficially over, some more than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been combatants from America’s Civil War found\nrecently, too; 154 years. Think about that. The results of such conflicts\nstill impact families and countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No biggie? Yeah, unless it’s your relative or ancestor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of you know my stepdaughter Brenda. Matt Briggs is her\nhusband. It gives this old vet pause. I hope it helps, in some small way, to\nencourage others to advocate for peaceful resolution of conflict. True, there\nhave been times when the nation was literally forced into armed combat. But\nlet’s insist that should be a last resort. There are far too many\n“leaders” who’re overly eager for battle. They rarely grasp the\nimplications of a declaration of war. To some, it is perceived as grand and\nglorious.
\nWe veterans know better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I await notification of dates and times of Sgt. Raeymacker’s\nservices. If at all possible, I hope to be there to render honors to that hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: William Mayers of Sullivan is a retired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since 1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered Professional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He is the father of three and avid analyst of current events.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming home By Bill Mayers Gerald Bernard Raeymacker will be coming home. He’s been missing since 1950. His remains were identified Aug. 9, 2019. He was a sergeant in the 57th Field Artillery Battalion, Provisional Battery B, which featured the 105mm howitzer. He went missing Dec. 6, 1950, during the battle at the Chosin Reservoir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-soA","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bill-mayers.jpg?fit=226%2C313&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}