Killed in action March 29, 1969 on Hill 126
in Quang Tri
Province
RETURNED DOG TAG BY GEORGE SWIERS
Steve:
Yesterday afternoon, May 27th 2010, I
visited the Troy New York home where
P.J. Baker spent the happiest of childhoods and placed
his dog tag in his mother's hand. She is in remarkable good health; as
are
P.J's brother Bob, his sisters Linda and Claire, and the
nieces and nephews P.J. never knew. I told her of your own connection to
P.J. both before and since his death and she is grateful to you for
both your friendship with P.J. and the role you played in the return.
Like us, she is filled with awe and gratitude for Chuck Peterson for his
commitment of the heart to returning these precious tags to family
members. Mrs. Baker is, as I learned years ago, a person of
extraordinary
faith and for her the return of the tag was a miracle that had happened
for a reason. That belief seemed reinforced when we talked about the
irony of last Sunday's Mass when the aged Priest Father Dominick
Imogenie who blessed the tag at my wife's request immediately recognized
Paul's name as a former student of his at Catholic Central High in
Troy. Mrs. Baker told me that last Veterans Day P.J's alma mater, where
he
had been his class valedictorian and an outstanding athlete, held a
special ceremony for him and presented her with a plaque. We visited for
an hour recalling P.J's childhood and I shared with her a funny story or
two from our time together in Vietnam. I gave her a recent picture of my
son Paul, named for her son Paul, and we laughed together recalling the
first time I had brought him to meet her and he toddled and tumbled
about the same living room where we sat and indeed where P.J. had once
played. In looking at the photo of my son she surely must have thought
briefly that he is at an age only slightly younger than P.J. was when he
died forever young. And embracing her as I left, I thought about the
bond
she and I will always share. She was with him when P.J. came into the
world, and I was with him when he left it.
