"Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing. Where have all the flowers gone? Long time ago...Where have all the young men gone?" - Pete Seeger

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." - Matthew 5:9

Sunset over Spencer (Photo by Barry Miller)

"How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? How many seas must the white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. The answer is blowin' in the wind." - Bob Dylan

"Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside... ain't gonna study war no more." - Pete Seeger

By Bob Weaver 2025

The ill-begotten Vietnam War killed 58,000 US civilians, 1.3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, two million Cambodians and Laotians and hundreds of thousands survived the conflict with harrowing physical and mental health.

It was fought over something related to "dominoes falling" into communist hands.

Dr. Tony Russell, now deceased and a former resident of Calhoun County, eloquently wrote the coming and going of Principalities and Powers, the human race unable to restrain itself from greed and destruction, blowin' in the wind.

A number of years ago I wrote about some Vietnam vets who died in that war, barely mentioning my personal connection to them. Maybe because recollections could be powerfully painful? Having read several histories about the war, a recent incident brought me back to the event.

Franklin D. Ashley, Jr, age 20, of Amma was killed in combat in Vietnam in 1969, one of three or four combat deaths from Roane County. He was a Roane County High School graduate, and a friend of my wife Dianne Starcher Weaver.

Dianne was reading a letter from "F D" while listening to the Spencer radio station, suddenly announcing his death. 'FD' and his fellow helicopter crew had been in a previous crash and all had survived. It was photos of that crash F.D. had sent in the letter to Dianne, she was reading. She said loudly to her mother, "Call the radio station and tell them that F.D. and the crew, SURVIVED!" Unfortunately the pictures were from an earlier crash.

As a Spencer mortician, we received a call to arrange for his funeral. Driving the hearse very late at night to the Charleston airport, we were followed by his parents.

His casket was accompanied by a soldier who dutifully saluted during the unloading from the aircraft into the hearse, his parents standing aside and weeping.

Then came the crooked journey to Spencer on US 119, to arrive at the funeral home to be unloaded inside the garage before his watchful parents, his father then requesting to open the casket to view his remains.

Well aware of the tortuous condition of the remains, I made some kind of feeble effort to discourage him. The body was covered by a dark stained glass shield, secured by multiple screws.

Removing the cover, revealed the mangled and burned body parts to his weeping parents, his father, a veteran of WWII, reaching for his hand to discover his Spencer High School graduation ring, after which he simply said, "It's him."

Lance Cpl. Eddie Dean Starcher

Marine Lane Corporal Eddie Dean Starcher, 22, of Rocksdale, Calhoun County, was killed in Vietnam in 1969, his remains returned to be buried in the Bethlehem Cemetery near Grantsville.

He was the son of Denvil and Bertie Louise Short Starcher, a graduate of Calhoun High School and Mountain State Business College. I will remember him as a smart, handsome young man, sometimes swimming with him and his friends in the deep water at the mouth of Henrys Fork and the West Fork of the Little Kanawha River, site of one of first steel girder bridges in Calhoun County.

His family was one of the about ten operators of the Rocksdale Store, in operation for over 100 years.

More recently the 130 year old bridge was condemned and replaced by modern structure connecting Roane County. We had planned an official ceremony for the new bridge dedication to be named in his honor, launched by my wife, Dianne Starcher Weaver. We invited all his decedents and the community. Unfortunately, along came Covid, the plans being dropped, but the bridge now bears his name.

Beyond his death perhaps the most grievous recollection was the fate of his young bride, Judith Riddle Starcher, the Queen of the Calhoun High School Class of 1964. Following his death, Judy went into a dark and deep spiral with her mental and physical health, dying at age 65.

Many years later my family visited the Vietnam War Memorial in DC to blotter the names of John Franklin Ashley and Eddie Dean Starcher. We uncontrollably wept.

Now we attempt to honor them them all, one more time, the answer my friend is blowin' in the wind.