US Army officer missing since March 2011 found - UK

[DandyDon]

Diver found

Terry Hawkins is planning his wife's second funeral. This time there will be a casket.

Authorities in England have identified the remains of Lt. Col. Mary Ewing, 45, who went missing March 5, 2011, while diving for scallops in the English Channel. She was flown back to Dover Air Force Base last Tuesday, where Army forensic experts reconfirmed her identity using DNA.

"She's coming home," said Hawkins, a retired soldier who lives at Pine Lake and is a contractor at Redstone Arsenal.

The Army wanted to fly Ewing and her casket to Huntsville on Thursday. At last word, he was still trying to have that delayed until next Wednesday, Sept. 26.

"You have no idea," he said of the range of emotions he and their grown children are going through. "All of the emotions of the last 18 months, they all come back on me."

Ewing, a master diver, was halfway through a two-year tour of duty in England and diving for fun with a group the day she disappeared. She and her diving partner had surfaced with no apparent problems, but after her partner boarded the boat and turned to look for Ewing, she was gone in the strong currents.

Hawkins and his family endured a fruitless search after her drowning and an almost three-month wait for the chain of command in two countries to concur June 3 with an Army casualty board at Fort Knox, Ky., that declared her dead on May 19.

Her memorial service - with military honors - was held June 18, 2011, at the Bicentennial Chapel at Redstone Arsenal. The service was 105 days after Ewing drowned.

"I loved her to death. And I am going to miss her," Hawkins said immediately after the memorial service. "Now we can get on with the healing process," which, he had added, is what his wife would have wanted.

And now it has all started over again.

Hawkins read about a diver being found in the Aug. 15 online issue of the Dorset Echo, a local paper near to where Ewing went missing.

Scallop divers found the body in a black dry suit with some diving gear in about 65 feet of water near Lulworth Banks, which are two miles off shore, the Echo reported Aug. 15.

Hawkins said he knew it was her and was waiting only for the Army to come and notify him. That happened Sunday, Sept. 9.

"The Army did not want to do anything until they identified her," Hawkins said.

A diver himself, he had long given up on her body being found and knew what happened to one under the sea.

"Actually, there was a lot more left than I was really expecting," he said Monday. "I know what they found. They had plenty for DNA analysis."

The Army notified him Monday that it wanted to return her casket this week.

"I need more notice than that," Hawkins said, explaining that their grown children and other family members had to make travel arrangements as well as arrangements for a full funeral.

"I hate to have to do stuff at the last minute," Hawkins said. "If they hold off, I can do the little detail things."

An honor guard will meet Ewing's plane in Huntsville. The hearse with her casket will have an escort to the funeral site.

"She's got it coming to her," Hawkins said of the full military honors his wife will receive.

"She'll be cremated. That was her wish in her will," he said. She asked that her ashes be scattered in the sea.

"It starts all over again," Hawkins said of the grieving process. "Oh, yeah, all over again. Absolutely. And the kids, they pretty much feel the same way."

Hawkins said he's received "fantastic" support the last 18 months from his co-workers at the arsenal.

"The guys at work have been there for me everyday," he said.

While there's grieving anew, this time there is one positive change - there will be a casket at the funeral.

"There will be real closure," Hawkins said. "We didn't have that before. But we will get that this time.

"A memorial service is just that - a memorial service. When you have a funeral service, then you have an ending.

"The colonel is coming home. There's an end to it now."

 

[peterbj7]

Sad, but now closure.

Dover Air Force base is actually called RAF Manston, or at any rate it used to be. I flew there a few times.

 

[DandyDon]

Sad, but now closure.

Dover Air Force base is actually called RAF Manston, or at any rate it used to be. I flew there a few times.

I think you may be confused. RAF Manston was an RAF station in the north-east of Kent while the Dover base mentioned is in the US. There is a town called Dover in Kent county, a little over 20 miles from Manston.

RAF Manston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dover Air Force Base - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dover AFB is also the home for the largest military mortuary in the Department of Defense, and has been used for processing military personnel killed in both war and peacetime; the remains of those killed overseas are traditionally brought to Dover before being transferred to family.

 

[peterbj7]

Indeed. I had no idea there was a Dover in the US. My error was that RAF Manston closed down since I last flew in there. Or to be more precise, flew over it, as I was cleared overhead on my inbound trip from Italy. There's a significant story there, but it's not about diving so I'll leave it.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Dover AFB is the home of the largest military mortuary in the US and is where they receive the majority of military KIAs and other service persons who died on active duty who are returned to the US.

The folks around Dover DE are pretty proud of it. Of course there was that little scandal a couple years ago...

 

[DandyDon]

Indeed. I had no idea there was a Dover in the US. My error was that RAF Manston closed down since I last flew in there. Or to be more precise, flew over it, as I was cleared overhead on my inbound trip from Italy. There's a significant story there, but it's not about diving so I'll leave it.

Dover, Kent County, England was named after the Dour River there. I couldn't find any record of Manston being named that, but it could have been a customary designation being so close? It was used by the USAF in the 1950s.

Many places in New England were named for Europeans & locations: The Delaware River for Baron De La Warr, the subsequent state for the river, the city of Dover in Kent County by Englishman William Penn, the new airport for the city right before WWI, then changed to Dover Army Air Corp base after we entered the war in the Pacific. So confusion over names in stories involving western Europe and New England is typical enough.

 

[Bhtmec2]

Rest in Peace Lt. Col. Ewing
Prayers out to your family and friends.......

Thank you for your service..................

 

[peterbj7]

And the Dour river was simply named after the original name for water, or the waters. Just like the various Avon rivers we have in Britain - "Avon" comes from much the same origins.

None of which should detract from this sad loss, diving in an area I know very well.