20070503: 19730503 Eddie Drabik Vietnam P.O.W Returns home to Union Bridge

On May 3rd, the “Community Reporter” carried this article in the paper on Vietnam P.O.W. Eddie Draik from Carroll County returning home…

Union Bridge Site Of Freedom Tree Fete

The Community Reporter, May 3, 1973.

It was a scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting of America. Well planted deep in the rolling hills of Western Maryland, the little town of Union Bridge was the scene of a heart warming, good old-fashioned American celebration, the like of which used to be standard procedure for all towns in this nation.

The occasion, this April 29 Sunday, was the dedication of another Freedom Tree. Eddie Drabik, former M.I.A. and P.O.W., was the guest of honor. Among the close to six hundred people who gathered together for the special celebration one could see in their faces the very heritage of America, past, present and its future.

In a country too long starved for real American heroes, Eddie Drabik was hugged, backslapped, kissed, handshook and praised by a cross section of American citizens. All sizes, shapes, ages and colors of people stood in the late April sunshine and eagerly anticipated the recussitative effects which they knew the patriotic ceremonies were going to have on the life signs of our nation's patriotism.

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More on Eddie Drabik:

Name: Peter Edward Drabik

Rank/Branch: United States Army/E3

Unit: 4th Inf Div

Date of Birth: 03 November 1947

Home City of Record: Union Bridge MD

Date of Loss: 24 September 1968

Country of Loss: South Vietnam

Loss Coordinates: 141145 North 1074851 East

Status (in 1973): Returnee

Category:

Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Missions:

Other Personnel in Incident:

Refno:

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 730316 RELEASED BY PRG

SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977

Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and spelling errors).

UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO

PETER E. DRABIC

Sergeant- United States Army

Captured: September 24, 1968

Released: March 16, 1973

After graduating from Francis Scott Key High School, Eddie became a maintenance clerk at Mitchell Transfer in Union Bridge, Maryland. In September 1968 at age 20, Eddie became a rifleman with the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Upon leaving Friendship International Airport his father gave him a St. Christopher medal and told him that he knew it would bring him back.

Soon after Eddie's arrival in Vietnam, his family received three letters that he had written the three days that his unit was in the field. The next day, while his mother and sister were baking cookies, they received a message that Eddie was missing in action. All that could be told them was that Eddie had been out on a recon patrol but was pinned down by an ambush of the Viet Cong. Eddie received a face wound, became separated from his group, and when the patrol returned to the area, he had been captured by the Viet Cong.

Until his name appeared on the final POW list of those who were coming home, no one knew whether Eddie was alive or dead. But, the family had never given up their faith and belief that Eddie was coming home. Two shrines had burned continuously and the family's reliance upon God helped them all through the ordeal.

Eddie came home ready to use his car that had been waiting in the garage, to ski and roller skate, and to romp with his beagle, Snoop, who had so missed his master. Union Bridge had never known such a day as the day Eddie came home.

November 1996

Peter Drabic resides in Maryland.