'You always hope'
by David Simon
News-Post Staff

	Anne Leffler holds an Army-issued journal belonging to her father, Pfc. Richard E. Vasko, who died in a plane crash in India on a routine cargo mission in May 1945. Staff photo by Graham Cullen View additional photos:
	In their words: Anne Leffler
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Anne Leffler never met her father, but she can picture him from time to time - close-cropped blond hair, blue eyes, handsome - a family man.

Growing up in Queens, N.Y., Leffler's family would tell her that her June 1945 birth, about six weeks earlier than expected, was brought on by news of her father's disappearance.

Pfc. Richard E. Vasko was a radio operator and navigator for a B-24D at the tail end of World War II. One of his duties was "flying the hump," an expression pilots used for crossing the Himalayas from India to China; that was the only way to China when the Japanese closed the Burma Road.

On May 3, days before the unconditional surrender of German forces to the Allies, Vasko was on a routine cargo mission headed northwest with a load of fuel bound for China. His plane crashed in the vicinity of Assam, India.

Villagers nearby reported that the plane burned for three days and the wreckage spread across an area as wide as three football fields. The Army found the wreckage 10 days later. The only remains of any service members were a boot with a foot in it and a hand with two fingers, said Leffler, who lives in Frederick.

It took the Army until the end of the month to send notice to the family about the crash.

A letter from Army chaplain Capt. Thomas M. Flynn arrived about a week later.

"Mrs. Vasco, since I had been assigned to the Base only recently, I did not know your husband personally. Several friends of Richard came to me and told me what an excellent character he was," Flynn wrote. "I assure you his loss will be felt by those who knew him. Worthy is he of the tribute that he laid down his life for his country and fellow man. Although I am well aware that no human words can take away the sorrow from your heart, I want you to know that you have my profound sympathy and that I share with you in some degree the heavy burden of grief."

The letter also stated that no burial service was possible.

Stephen Vasko, Leffler's grandfather, had a difficult time accepting his son's death. He was politically connected and was able to persuade Army officials to keep the case open rather than issue a conclusive finding of death.

In September 1947, the family received a letter from the Army asking for more information on Vasko, to determine if further searches would be warranted. That spurred the family's hope that he might still be alive.

That possibility still pains Leffler.

"Even to this day, it's still bothersome," she said. "There's never really been closure. I don't think you ever have that. Logically, I know he's dead, but emotionally, you always hope."

In 1949, Leffler's grandmother, Rose Vasko, still didn't have a clear understanding of the intensity of the crash that killed her son or that no burial would be possible. She wrote a letter to the Army in November of that year, asking for more details. "I would like to get some information in regards to the remains of my son, who was killed in India May 3, 1945," she wrote. "Up to the present time, I haven't received one word as to where he is buried or about bringing his body home. Since my daughter-in-law has remarried and since my husband has died, I wish to be the person to receive the War Department inquiry and all information you have in regards to my boy. I would like to bury him with his dad."

Vasko is now listed on the tablets of the missing at the Manila American Cemetery & Memorial in the Philippines.

In 2005, Leffler attended a group meeting for family members of prisoners of war and service members classified as missing in action. She shared her father's story as she listened to others tell about their loved ones.

"I cried when other people told their stories," she said. "I choked up during mine - my husband finished the story for me."