By Karen Cernich,
Record Feature Writer
Beth (Clover) Vincent, Warrenton, has a memory of her father that she can’t be quite sure if it was imagined, dreamed or if there’s a chance it could be real.She was only 8 months old in October 1952 when her father, Air Force fighter pilot Lt. Melvin E. Clover, was declared Missing In Action (MIA) during the Korean War. She had been only 6 months old when he left St. Louis for training before being sent to Korea.“It’s crazy, but I have this memory of sitting on his lap and reaching for a glass on the table, of him saying, ‘No,’ and pushing it away. I don’t know if I’ve imagined that or dreamed that or what. I was too small to have memories of him,” said Vincent, who serves as treasurer for the Tribute to Veterans Memorial, which is planned to be built in Warrenton this fall with donations.“I had a little picture of him in my room that his mom, my grandma, gave to me. She always told me things about my dad; it was always too hard for Mom to talk about,” Vincent said. “It always had been hard not knowing exactly what happened to him. We have an incident report . . . he tried to parachute out, but we don’t know if he made it or not.”Lt. Clover’s jet plane crashed and exploded on a combat mission in North Korea Oct. 14, 1952. It was his 27th birthday.His widow (Vincent’s mother) was given very little information about the incident initially, since it was classified.The family was told “in all probability,” Lt. Clover had been killed in the jet crash. His body was never recovered. A little more than a year after the incident, Lt. Clover was declared MIA/KIA (Killed In Action).That’s how he is still listed today.Growing up without her father was difficult enough for Vincent — even though her mom remarried, giving her an “awesome” stepdad, who also was a veteran, a Pearl Harbor survivor — but having so little information made the situation even worse.“There’s like a hole there,” said Vincent.Her story of growing up without her father is what inspired people in Warren County to create the Tribute to Veterans Memorial as a way to honor all of the MIA/KIA veterans from their community.For the last 17 years, Vincent has been working to obtain as much information as is known about her father’s case. She registered with the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office at the Pentagon and has made trips to Washington, D.C., to attend annual meetings where relatives of those who are MIA/KIA are given updates on the search for their loved one’s remains.The family also gave DNA in the hope that if Lt. Clover’s remains are among those that have been or will be recovered, he will be able to be identified.“I just felt like there was something I needed to know,” said Vincent. “I had gotten all of the files that they would release, all of his medical files.“A lot of the bodies they have recovered are just fragments of bones, which are in a lab in Hawaii, but they don’t know yet who they are. They are doing the DNA to try to find a match.”‘What I Do Is for the Freedom of Men’Lt. Clover was a graduate of Roosevelt High School in St. Louis and joined the Army Air Force at age 17.He served during World War II, graduated as a navigator, said his widow, Ginny Mischlispy.They were married in 1945. She was 17, and he was 19. They were introduced by Ginny’s aunt, who worked with him at a small arms ammunition plant in St. Louis.“She thought he was so nice, she invited him home to Christmas to meet me,” recalled Mischlispy, with a smile.Clover went to college on the G.I. Bill. He attended St. Louis University’s Parks College of Aeronautical Technology where he earned a degree in aeronautical engineering.“The day he graduated, he received orders to return to duty as a member of the Air Force Reserve,” said Mischlispy.It was February 1951. The couple had their first child in 1948, although the child died after just a couple of days. Their second child, Pam, was born in 1950, and their third child, Beth (Vincent), was born in February 1952.After Clover was called back to service for the Korean War, the family, which had been living in Texas, moved back to St. Louis so they could be nearer to other relatives with Lt. Clover overseas.“The last place I saw him was Union Station in St. Louis, getting on the train,” recalled Mischlispy. “He was in California for just a few weeks of training before he was sent to Korea (around August 1952).”Lt. Clover wrote his wife letters from Korea. One dated just four days before he was killed includes his feelings about being called back to service:“Darling, you must realize that what I am doing is right. It is as right as if the Master himself touched me on the shoulder and said, ‘Go,’ ” Lt. Clover wrote.“I regret with all that I can command that I subject you to such terrific hardship. But what I do is for the freedom of men which is the will of God. I realize I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I ask you, could you be more proud of me doing anything else?“I have found an endeavor in which I believe. The freedom of men and the way of life which will guarantee to Pam and to Beth Ann the heritage which they were born into the very minute they were born.”Mischlispy said her husband wasn’t nervous about being called back up to serve.“He always wanted to be a pilot,” she remarked. “When he was in the second World War, he was a navigator, but he actually wanted to be a pilot.”What the Family KnowsFirst Lt. Clover was assigned to the 9th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 49th Fighter-Bomber Wing, 5th Air Force.On Oct. 14, 1952, 1st Lt. Clover took off from Taegu Air Base in South Korea, flying as No. 2 in a flight of four F-84 Thunderjet fighter-bomber aircraft, according to a report that Vincent was given. Their target was a rail bridge near Kowon along the main rail line from Wonsan to Pyongyang.“Their flight arrived in the target area without difficulty and they began their attack runs,” the report reads. “First Lt. Clover dropped his bombs on target without incident, but as he was pulling out . . . he radioed that his engine had ‘flamed out.’ ”He attempted several in-flight restarts, but all failed. Lt. Clover was told to eject “and as he passed 1,000 feet above sea level, he radioed, ‘Well, here I go. This is a fine birthday present.’“The canopy separated from the aircraft, but no one saw any indication that the ejection seat had fired or any sign of a parachute in the air,” the report notes. “The aircraft remained in level flight, in a controlled glide, until it struck the ground and burst into flames at 1108 local time. After impact, No. 3 and 4 circled the crash site for 10 minutes but observed no signs of life.”There was hope for some time that Lt. Clover could have successfully ejected and perhaps taken as a prisoner of war, but there was never any evidence of that, said Vincent.“Efforts at resolution, including preparations for future work in North Korea, continue,” the report reads.Vincent said she remains hopeful that her father’s remains will one day be found. The government of North Korea has at times allowed access to crash sites, battlefields and prison camp cemeteries.Over the past 20 years the 600-plus highly skilled civilians and military members of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) have been able to locate, identify and account for more than 1,530 missing personnel worldwide, including 336 from the Korean War,” according to an article in the March/April 2016 issue of The Greybeards, the official publication of the Korean War Veterans Association.There are more than 83,000 Americans still missing from past conflicts since World War II, including approximately 7,800 from the Korean War, the article points out.“More than 1,230 remains of missing Korean War veterans are under the United States’ control either at the DPAA laboratory in Hawaii or at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, but given the commingled state of many of the remains and other factors, it will take years for the DPAA laboratories to identify these remains,” the article continues.It’s a slim chance that Lt. Clover’s remains could be among those in Hawaii awaiting identification, since his was a single crash where only one life was lost, but it is possible.“I’m still hoping,” said Vincent, optimistically. “I’m not giving up.”She feels like the government has been helpful to the family in their search for answers and information.“I think they do care, but there is so much that gets pushed back. They are compassionate,” said Vincent.Going to South KoreaVincent and her husband, who is a Vietnam veteran, will travel to South Korea later this month as part of a program offered by the South Korean government for families of American MIA/KIA servicemen. They will get to visit battlefields, memorials and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where a memorial ceremony will be held to honor American servicemen, including Lt. Clover.Vincent said all of this, from her search for information to her trip to South Korea, helps her feel a little closer to the father she barely knew.“I hope too it will be a little closure for me. Like a little funeral or something,” she said. ‘Some Gave All’The Tribute to Veterans Memorial, which will be located at the Warren County Administrative Building, 101 Mockingbird Lane, Warrenton, will be the first of its kind in Warren County. It will be located right off of the Purple Heart Trail.The centerpiece of the memorial will be a granite wall 18 feet long and 6 feet high with the words “Some Gave All” etched in bronze on the front size and the names of 70 veterans from World War I to present day who were KIA, and some of whom are still MIA.“A lot of them are buried overseas or are missing and their families don’t have anything,” said Vincent, of why the memorial will be so valuable.The memorial also will include statues by Liberty Artworks and a flagpole court.To help fund the memorial, pavers are being sold for $150. Each paver is 4 by 8 inches and can include three lines of 20 characters.Vincent’s father, who was a St. Louis native, won’t be named on the back of the granite wall, but Vincent has purchased a paver in his memory.“We are hoping this memorial will help the Gold Star families who lost someone, but also to educate our children about the sacrifices and to honor all veterans,” said Vincent.“We are indebted to those tho gave all. We are grateful to all who served,” a brochure for the memorial reads.Organizers are hopeful that work on the granite wall can begin this fall, as long as 1,500 pavers are sold. To make a donation to the memorial, people can send checks to Tribute to Veterans Memorial, P.O. Box 57, Warrenton, MO 63383 or visit www.tributetoveteransmemorial.org.Pavers can be purchased online at ttvmsupporter.donationbricks.com. People can pay by credit card, PayPal or by mailing a check.Beth (Clover) Vincent is active as a volunteer for veteran causes, among them, Quilts of Valor and Stitches in Time. In March 2015, she delivered homemade quilts to veterans at Victorian Place of Washington, including Kenneth Sohn, a World War II veteran and prisoner of war in the Battle of the Bulge. Record Photo.
