A Voice From the Past

By DAVID VERGUN, Production Editor

Jamie Lange sometimes hears a voice from the past. It is a voice of someone she has met but does not remember. It is the voice of her deceased father--Navy Lt. Mark Lange, killed in action in Lebanon in 1983.

Mark, Jamie's dad, was not a letter writer. Before he died, however, Mark mailed cassette tapes from overseas to his parents in Fraser, Mich., where his six-month-old daughter Jamie also lived.

Jamie, now 18, sometimes listens to the tapes. "It is wonderful but sort of strange, listening to the voice of my dad," said Jamie. "Even though he is not here, I sometimes feel his presence." Along with Mark's voice, Jamie's tapes contain the occasional noises of flight operations at sea--the sounds of jets taking off from the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy. Mark, 26, was an A-6E Intruder pilot with Attack Squadron 85. The squadron was embarked on the John F. Kennedy in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in support of the U.S. peacekeeping mission to Lebanon when his ill-fated mission occurred.

Walter, Mark's father, said his son had planned to get out of the Navy eventually--to return home and care for Jamie. Mark and his wife had recently separated. But Mark's planned homecoming was not to be.

Mark's A-6E was shot down over central Lebanon on 4 December 1983 during a bombing raid--in retaliation for hostile ground fire directed at U.S. reconnaissance flights over the area. He and his bombardier-navigator, Lt. Robert Goodman, ejected at low altitude. Goodman survived the crash landing with some injuries, but one of Mark's legs was severed when he hit the ground hard. Both men were quickly captured by the Syrian militia. Mark's captors did not apply the tourniquet that might have saved his life. Doctors who later examined the body said he bled to death. Goodman was released a few weeks later, following talks between Rev. Jesse Jackson and Syrian officials.

Jamie was now without live-in parents--but she still had a loving family. Mark's parents agreed to raise her. "I call them Grandpa and Grandma, but have always thought of them as my parents," said Jamie of her grandparents.

Walter sometimes sees Mark in Jamie, especially in their shared love of singing and acting. Jamie starred in several high school plays, and Mark performed with the Glee Club at the U.S. Naval Academy during his four years as a midshipman. "Mark would have been proud of his daughter," Walter said.

In May, Jamie graduated from East Grand Rapids High School in East Grand Rapids, Mich. She has been accepted for college at Grand Valley State University near Allendale, Mich., where she will major in the arts. She hopes to pursue a career as a commercial illustrator.

Jamie's grandparents had planned on sending her to school through a state grant for children of deceased veterans. However, they later learned that the state had drastically reduced the funding available for the grant program. They had to find another way to help pay for her education. Walter learned that the Navy League of the United States offers partial scholarships. Jamie applied, and she was recently notified that she has been awarded a four-year Navy League scholarship.

Jamie said she was pleasantly surprised to learn of her scholarship award. "I feel like the scholarship--coming from the Navy League--is a tribute to my dad, who bravely served his country in the Navy," she said.

To learn more about the Navy League Foundation's Scholarship Program, contact the foundation director, Matt Schatzle, at (703) 528-1775. Application forms and guidelines are available on the web at www.navyleague.org.