Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s book is about the uncle she never knew, but the local hero Milford did

The Pearce family has lived in Milford for decades. Chief Master Sergeant Edwin “Jack” Pearce, the subject of Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s book, was a home-grown Milford boy who attended Delaware Valley Elementary School and graduated from Delaware Valley High School. Jack followed his father, Edwin Pearce, into the Air Force and had signed up for his second tour of duty in Vietnam. Young Pearce was in a covert operation in Laos when his plane was shot down in the jungle by a surface-to-air missile over the Ho Chi Min Trail on March 29, 1972.

Jack’s father, Edwin Pearce, himself a war hero, had jumped from a burning B-17 bomber over Germany in 1943. He was missing in action for months and finally taken as a POW in Stalag 17. He survived nearly three years in a prison camp and a march across the Alps before returning home.

The elder Pearce spent decades trying to get information from the government about his son, but since the operation in Laos was covert, he was forced to pursue many dead ends. A man of true grit, he set out across southeast Asia to find answers.

A private grief

Rotondi was 23 when her mother, Linda Pearce, died. It was then she discovered various letters and government documents about her Uncle Jack. Her mother had never told her about these – she kept her grief very private. In her discovery of these materials, Rotondi learned more about her family’s history, and our country’s history during this difficult time of the Vietnam war, and she also developed a better understanding of her mother’s grief.

Rotondi decided to find out more about her Uncle Jack’s fate. She had been working on this for 10 years and finally went to retrace the path that her grandfather had taken in his effort to unlock the truth. He did not believe the government, who told him that Jack had died.

The result is her book, “What We Inherit,” just published by Unnamed Press. The book has received numerous accolades. Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize author of “Alexander Hamilton,” said, “A beautiful amalgam of memoir, travelogue, and investigate report that moves with the propulsive forward energy of a thriller.” Salman Rushdie called the book, “Exceptional.”

This is not surprising since Rotondi, a Brown graduate, was a senior lifestyle editor at the Huffington Post, and her writing has been published by the History Channel, and Atlas Obscura, among other publications. “What We Inherit” is her first book and has just been named “One of the bet books of summer by O, the Oprah Magazine.

You can hear Rotondi reading from the book on a Zoom session at the Newbury Literary Festival. More than 2,000 people watched. The reading can be heard on her website, jessicapearcerotodondi.com. An audio reading of the entire book by the author is also available.

It was not until 36 years later that Jack Pearce’s remains were found and hus DNA identified. Chief Major Sergeant Edwin Jack Pearce was given a private burial in Milford Cemetery with full military honors. An AC130 flew over the gravesite, and there was a 21-gun salute in his honor.

Several objects around Milford honor Pearce. One is a tree planted at the Columns Museum with a plaque bearing his name. There are more plaques at the Ann Street playground and Orange Square in Port Jervis. There is a monument honoring him in Delaware Valley Elementary School. Jack’s brother has a memorial in his basement in Milford.

Jack was much loved. His brother, Kim, wears a MIA bracelet in his honor, and Kevin Stroyan, of Stroyan’s Funeral Home in Milford, a close family friend,also wears the bracelet.

CMS Pearce is not forgotten.