Two Hundred Years Apart - Joined in Death in Tripoli -
William E. Kelly
Tripoli Harbor
Two Hundred Years Apart
Richard Somers, Henry Wadsworth and Joseph Israel are
separated by two centuries from Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci, Paul F, Lorence and David Berry, but they share a similar fate – dying on the shores of Tripoli while opposing Islamic tyranny.
They should all have their names engraved in the
Tripoli Monument at Annapolis, they should all be eligible for the Medal of
Honor and all of their remains should be recovered and buried with full
military honors alongside their fellow veterans in a protected cemetery, but
that won’t happen as long as the top brass in the military have their way.
Somers, Wadsworth and Israel died fighting the Basha
of Tripoli Yousef Karamanli, an Islamic tyrant and pirate, but their remains
were left behind in Tripoli as prescribed by law and they are not elegible for
the Medal of Honor because they fought and died in a war that preceded such traditions.
Ribas and Lorance were shot down in 1980 over Libya
during Operation El Dorado Canyon, air attack on Gadhafi’s home, and while Ribas’
remains were recovered, the search for the remains of Lorance continues.
Berry, a former US Marine, was killed by Islamic
State suicide terrorists at the Corinthian Hotel, an attack by an affiliate of
the Islamic State was said to be in retaliation for the death of Abu Anas
al-Libi, who was picked up off a Libyan street by US special forces and he died
while awaiting trial in New York City for the attack on a US embassy. His remains
were returned to his family in Libya, just as the remains of Berry were
returned to the United States.
Anas al-Libi received a hero’s welcome in Libya,
similar to that of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset al-Megrahi when
he was freed from a Scottish prison.
Abdelbasset al-Magrahi with Saif Gadhafi at the former Wheelus Air Force Base, Tripoli
Berry’s body was returned home to his
family and he was buried with full military honors in a ceremony similar to the
one Chris Kyle received and as portrayed in the film American Sniper.
The remains of another young Navy officer from Philadelphia
James Caldwell were never recovered and were last seen being mauled by dogs on
the Tripoli beach, while the remains of Somers, Wadsworth, Israel and ten men
of the USS Intrepid were recovered
and buried on the high ground near the old castle fort by prisoners from the captured frigate USS Philadelphia.
And there they remain. Over time other Christians
who had the misfortune to die in the predominately Muslim city and society, were buried
alongside them and in 1830 the British built a wall around what became known as
Old Protestant’s Cemetery.
Inside the Cemetery
According to the most recent research including deep
background from the Libyan’s own published history “Secrets of Old Protestant
Cemetery,” the remains of the officers and all of the men are within the walls
of the cemetery, some likely within the above ground crypts that have been
identified and clearly labeled as those of the men of the USS Intrepid.
Secrets
was
researched and published at the same time as the Gadhafi government’s
renovation of the cemetery and the U.S. State Department’s nomination of the
cemetery to the United Nation as a World Heritage Site.
The UN however, cannot protect its World Heritage
sites, as dozens of them have been damaged or completely destroyed in recent
times by the same radical Islamists who ransacked Timbuktu.
The twin Buda statues that stood tall in Afghanistan
for centuries were the first to fall to the Taliban, stirring outrage around
the world, but failing to stop the Ben – from destroying the ancient Islamic
archives at Timbuktu, where they imposed strict Islamic law for a few months,
long enough to dislodge the remains of Muslim saints and holy men from their
tombs, as these radical extremists believe in a strict orthodox version of
Islam that doesn’t permit the veneration of the dead. And they don’t allow anyone
else to venerate them either.
Turkey recently invaded Syria in order to save the
remains of the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, relics that
were being guarded by soldiers besieged by Islamic State terrorists who wanted
to destroy the shrine, relics and historic remains in the name of idolatry.
Soon after the Arab Spring and Libyan revolution
radical extremists filmed themselves desecrating the graves of British soldiers
at Tobruk, and dug up the remains of Islamic Sufi saints from their graves
beneath the floors of mosques in Tripoli.
After Lorence’s and Ribas-Dominici were shot down
while bombing Gadhafi’s Tripoli home in 1986, Ribas-Dominici’s remains were
returned after the intercession of the Pope, but the remains of Lorence, like
those of Caldwell, were never recovered.
When Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in Benghazi
with his associates, their remains were returned home and received at the
airport by the Secretary of State and president.
When David Barry was killed by Islamic State suicide
killers, his body was returned home, but the remains of Somers, Wadsworth,
Israel and the men of the Intrepid remain left behind within the walls of the
old cemetery, now besieged by radical Islamists.
As explained by Chris Dickon in his book “The Foreign Burial of American War Dead”
(McFarland, 2012), the Tripoli remains have not been recovered because the law
doesn’t require the government and the military to treat all veterans equally,
and only requires those who died in combat abroad since World War I to be
returned home - if their family requests.
President Obama recently awarded a Medal of Honor to
a Civil War officer who distinguished himself in the battle at Gettysburg, but despite
the efforts of Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser and others, only those who
served since the Civil War are deemed eligible for the Medal of Honor.
The military refused to repatriate the men of the Intrepid
because, as their 2012 report affirms, they don’t have to.
The men who fought and died in the Barbary Wars against
the same Islamic enemy deserve the respect, rights and honors received by those
who are at the front lines today -
Now is the time for Congress to act on this
discrepancy
Therefore Be It Resolved: Under the Powers granted to Congress – the US
government and the US military shall treat all veterans with equal status and respect without regard to when they served – and give special consideration in awarding the Congressional Medal of
Honor to the officers of the USS Intrepid – Lieuts, Richard Somers, Henry Wadsworth and Joseph Israel for their leadership and inspiration in the continuing war against Islamic tyranny.
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