Shipley family members will attend services honoring their long-missing relative
By Jane Schuchardt
Special to the Elgin Review
When the taps
sound for his uncle at Arlington National Cemetery on November 14, 2025, Douglas (Doug) Shipley, rural Elgin, admits the tears just might, well, likely will, flow.
Doug plans to attend services for Capt. Thomas Edwin Scheurich, along with some of his siblings and other family members, to honor, remember, and give thanks that these 58 years of struggle from not knowing will finally be resolved. On April 23, 2025, Capt. Scheurich’s remains were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Doug was 15 years old when his mom learned that her brother was missing in action (MIA). Doug and his younger brother, David (Dave) of Lincoln, both recall their uncle’s visit to the Shipley family home in Sydney, NE, prior to his deployment to Vietnam in 1967.
“Such a wonderful, fun guy,” Doug recalled, and “so musical” both Doug and Dave recounted. “He sang, played the banjo and the accordion. The whole family was musical,” Dave said.
With Capt. Scheurich’s U.S. Navy commitments in California and Virginia, the Shipley family didn’t see him much though, whenever possible, he came to Nebraska to catch up with all the relatives. And then, nothing, no communication from one of Nebraska’s revered sons born in Norfolk on August 19, 1933.
Doug said that when the family got word the plane his uncle was piloting got shot down on a mission in North Vietnam, and then he was listed as MIA, there was always this nagging hope that he’d come home one day. “So many stories would get back to the family, and it was devastating,” Dave said. “There was always hope he might still be alive, maybe in a prison camp; so many highs and lows for the family.”
When Doug graduated high school, he took a trip with cousins to see Capt. Scheurich’s wife, Eileen, out east. “The cousins all decided we were going over there to find him,” Doug said admitting that this teenager desire was not realistic.
In May, the family learned about the remains being found and identified. Though a relief to get closure, Dave said, “It’s all so very sad since Capt. Scheurich’s parents died not knowing this (the recovery of his remains) would eventually happen.”
Doug added, “Through it all, my mother was crushed and my grandpa turned into a bitter man. Think about how an experience like this can affect a person.”
