| By Chris Raymaker (72.133.45.89) on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 - 12:48 am: Edit Post |
Thank you for your comments or assistance if you knew ,met or were involved in the mission on which he went missing. If you were involved in the search for him, I would appreciate your input as well. He served in Malangali,Tanzania in 1967-68.
Mark was my older brother, born in Green Bay, WI. My name is Christopher Raymaker and I live in Wisconsin currently.
Contrary to the obiturary notice posted on a PCV website, and now unavailable, he went missing in June or July of 1968 while on a Field mission in a remote area referred to as the "bush" . As the report goes, he and a companion PCV were hunting Grant's Gazelles for fresh food, and after wounding an animal,split up to track it . He was never again seen.
I have long resigned myself to his dissappearance.But after recalling and re-reading the press and official P/C accounts of the search and the final conclusions regarding his fate, much remains unanswered, some 40 years later. Why his compass left in the landrover? , why no cigarettes taken with a chainsmoker,why no gunshots, why no physical equipment found, no clothing, human remains, vultures,bloodstains, carrion etc.
I cannot help but intuitively conclude that either information was ommitted from the official action accounts, or the search was very poorly managed and iniated long after it should have been. Since it is not practical for me to travel to Tanzania, and try to re-trace his steps to unravel the mystery, I hope that some of you who might still be around and have personal knowledge of the events, might see fit to contact me.
Thank you for your service and understanding. My brother Mark Raymaker was no hero. But it would be a blessing to better understand the incident which took him from us all. It was a mystery which haunted his mother to her last breath.
Thank you,
Chris Raymaker
craymaker@new.rr.com
| By Admin1 (admin) (141.157.21.56) on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 - 8:04 am: Edit Post |
The obituary for Mark Raymaker, who went missing in Tanzania in 1968, is available at:
http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/ 2018888.html.
If anyone serving in Tanzania at that time can be of assistance in providing further details about his disappearance, please contact his family at the email address above.