Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor
The Re-interment of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida F.
McLendon Wright at
Arlington National Cemetery
March 10, 2014
Fact Sheet
Timeline:
March 3-Sp5 Wyley Wright will
be disinterred from Mount Olive Cemetery in Jacksonville, FL by Wilbert Vault
and re-casketed by Carthage Funeral Home.
March 4-Sp5 Wyley Wright will
be flown to Columbus, Georgia & Ouida F. Wright will be disinterred by
Green Acres Cemetery in Columbus, GA and her remains joined with her husband’s
by Taylor’s Funeral Home of Phenix City, AL.
March 5-Sp5 Wyley Wright and
Ouida F. Wright Flown to Washington D.C. Greene Funeral Home will officiate.
March 10th- The
day after the 50th and 44th death anniversaries of Sp5
Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida F. Wright- Commemoration and Re-burial at Arlington
National Cemetery 3:00 p.m.
Why Honor Father and Mother?
Memorials and Honoring the
Dead were an integral part of the life of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. Every opportunity for leave from the U.S.
Army and a visit home, he always cleaned and brought flowers to his mother and
other family members’ graves. He felt it was his sacred duty.
News accounts over the years
of monies set aside to improve the gravesites in northern Jacksonville,
predominantly Black, were encouraging, yet the accounts did not manifest into
reality. Mt. Olive was lush and green in
March of 1964.
Upon a visit to Sp5 Wyley
Wright’s grave at Mt. Olive Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida at the Simmons
Family Reunion July 4th Weekend 2012, the Wright children became
resolved to have their father’s grave moved from the segregated cemetery to
Arlington National Cemetery.
Why Arlington National
Cemetery as the final resting place of their parents? The siblings express that their father gave
the ultimate sacrifice for the United States of America and as such they wanted
his sacrifice to be remembered in a place that generations of family members
could more easily access. He will now
rest along with the "wife of his youth,” near the Potomac River, across from
the Lincoln Memorial and closer to the Viet Nam War Memorial, "The Wall” where
he is listed at panel 1 E, Row 46.
Sp5 Wyley Wright’s death,
March 9, 1964 while on an added mission (He had successfully completed all his
regular assignments honorably and had received awards for his service.) as an
honor guard for Secretary of Defense Robert S. (Strange) McNamara received
national and local media attention. CBS’
Walter Cronkite told of the incident during the CBS national news with footage
of the recovered wreckage. The Florida
Star (Black newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida) and Florida Times Union carried
articles including the funeral at Grant Memorial Church.
Sp5 Wyley Wright was sent to
Viet Nam as an "adviser” under President John F. Kennedy’s Administration. Just over 90 days of his Commander and
Chief’s death, November 22, 1963, Wright died during the Lyndon B. Johnson
Administration.
The difficulty of being among
the groundbreaking, first U.S. aviation company in South Viet Nam is described
in http://www.145thcab.com/History/NL29HIST.htm -Battalion
History of 114th.
Spiritually speaking, the
death on March 9, 1964 of Sp5 Wyley Wright and PFC John Francis Shea of
Willimantic, Connecticut, who was only twenty days from celebrating his 21st
birthday, was a sign to Secretary of Defense McNamara. "The two witnesses” as referenced in the Holy
Bible were ignored. McNamara escalated the war during the Johnson
administration and went to his death on July 6, 2009 at the age of 93
regretting his actions. His 1995 memoir,
"In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam and the Oscar-winning documentary film "The Fog of
War” expressed those regrets.
The Wright siblings are
reminded that their father lost a fellow soldier at the time of his death,
young John Francis Shea, who was childless.
His sacrifice is not forgotten.
The impact of his death on his mother and family cannot be fully
expressed and understood. No parent
wants to bury his or her child. The Shea
and Wright families’ stories are a part of the 58,000 U.S. men and women who
died in Viet Nam, a chapter among the millions, who shed their blood for the
commonwealth of the United States of America.
Description of Wright’s and
Shea’s deaths, Incident 62-01961 is posted in the Gold Book:
http://560mp.tripod.com/560MP/Shea.htm
The loss of their parents,
Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. (born December 7, 1931 in White House, Florida, a District
of Jacksonville, Florida; died March 9, 1964, South Viet Nam) and Ouida F.
McLendon Wright (born January 10, 1935 in Ozark, Dale County, Alabama- died March
9, 1970 at Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia), while they were both
in their early thirties, had a major impact of the Wright siblings. Their parents’ death was not spoken of among
them openly until 2008. As a result of
lessons learned the Wright siblings would advise the families of fallen
soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to talk often and very early on
about their loss. Unresolved pain delays
healing.
Family members such as their
maternal grandmother, Willie Bell McLendon helped them mold into the people
they are today, raising them until the oldest Jackquelyn, at age 20, began
raising her 15 year old brother and 10 year old sister and the eldest son went
into the Army. A great work ethic was
instilled by their parents and reinforced by family members. (Jackquelyn earned two degrees from the
University of Georgia while raising her teenage sister and elementary age
daughter.) Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ has been the foundation for their prevailing as fatherless and
motherless children to overcome many destructive challenges in U.S. society.
The distinctive Tennessee
stone home, 1103 Bedford Avenue, Columbus, Georgia built by their mother from
their father’s Metropolitan Life Insurance proceeds was lost to foreclosure in
the mid 1980’s. Neighbors and cousins,
Katie and Robert Morris (U.S. Army Veteran), much like the biblical
principle of kinsman redeemer, bought the home to keep it in the family and
turned it into a senior services home in alignment with Ouida F. Wright’s
philosophy of being of service to others.
Although, Ouida F. Wright was
buried in Green Acres Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia, a well-kept perpetual
property, the Wright siblings decided to join their parents’ remains since they
had a great love for each other. It was
a photo of Ouida F. McLendon, "Miss Frederick Douglass” of Phenix City, Alabama
that caught Sp5 Wright’s eye and heart with love at first sight, as a fellow
soldier, Cecil Griffin dropped the picture on the ship floor as they traveled
across the Pacific Ocean returning from the Korean War. Wright picked it up and asked for an
introduction. The rest is history as
they say.
The Wright Siblings: Jackie
Wright is a former broadcast news reporter and nonprofit executive, 60 of San
Francisco who owns a media company, Wright Enterprises; Joe N. Wright, 58 of
Columbus, Georgia is a U.S. Army Veteran who works for a medical transportation
company; Stanley Wright, 55 or Orangeburg, South Carolina owns "Done Wright Trucking
Company” and Phyllis Cameron of Antioch, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area is an
insurance executive and founder of the Wright Place for Seniors with her
husband Woodrow Cameron.
War separated Sp5 Wright and
his wife. Honor brings them back
together in a final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery, March 10,
2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Background Information:
Media Advisory-Sp5 Wyley and
Ouida Wright Re-interment
Columbus Veteran To Honor
Father and Mother at Arlington National Cemetery
Asian Week Article 2010 on
San Francisco Reunion
http://www.asianweek.com/2010/06/28/family-reunion-honors-the-legacy-of-a-dad-and-vietnam-war-hero/
News Release 2010 on San
Francisco Reunion
http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=67401&columnid
Gold Book Describing Death of
Sp5 Wright and PFC Shea on March 9, 1964
http://560mp.tripod.com/560MP/Shea.htm
Battalion History of 114th-
"Knights of the Air”(First Army Aviation Unit in Viet Nam) Outlining the
difficulty of missions: http://www.145thcab.com/History/NL29HIST.htm