Missing veteran from Robbinston comes home

The hands on a clock may stop, but time continues forward, especially when it involves a loved one who has gone missing. The minutes, days and years accumulate, bringing with them only memories. For the family of World War II veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor John A. Malloch, time will always be front and center as their memories of him continue to bring light to a darkness they continue to endure.
"I was two years old when he walked away one evening," says Cindy Black. Malloch is Black's great uncle. "He was my maternal grandmother Mildred Malloch Flaherty Stevens' brother." Malloch would be 103 years old today, and his case remains listed as a missing person's case.
He's been gone for more years than being present -- active in both family life and military service -- and his life is like that of a puzzle, whose last piece is still missing. Many people believe the piece will remain elusive, perhaps never to be found. But for those surviving family members and friends, even though time is definitely against them, they refuse to forget one of their own and a veteran who served his country.
Malloch was born on September 9, 1918, and raised in Robbinston. For U.S. citizens alive in 1918, that year was one of uncertainty. World War I was coming to a close, while the 1918 flu pandemic that killed an estimated 100 million people worldwide was raging. For John Wellington Malloch and his wife Mary Elizabeth, with the birth of their son John Auden, brother to Mildred, Bruce, Theodore and Gerald, life was still being lived one day at a time, and family was the priority every day.
Graduating from Calais High School in 1939, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940. Pfc. Malloch trained in the Air Corps and was stationed in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. Present during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, he lost most of his eyesight and shortly after was discharged. Specifics on how he was injured remain lost.
Over 20 years later, there is a fog as to what took place within those years -- another puzzle piece that remains missing. The assumption is that Malloch, once discharged, returned home to Robbinston. Fast forward to 1965. Having never married, he was living in a boarding house in Waterville with another person. According to court documents, on September 26 Malloch, wearing shirt, slacks and bedroom slippers, left his Waterville residence to get some fresh air, he told his roommate at the time. He has not been heard from since.
After months of agonizing searches, time continued on, eventually becoming years with no trace of Malloch. The family eventually filed to have their loved one declared deceased. In late 1972 their request was granted, and Malloch's estate was settled. Since then, Black, working with officials with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Senator Susan Collins' office, acquired a stone grave marker recognizing his service to his country.
For Black, she simply wants her great-uncle to be remembered. She does this for him, the family and especially her grandmother. "Gram would be so happy," says Black. "She would constantly tell all of us how intelligent and handsome he was. And even though her brother was never found and my grandmother and many other family members are no longer with us, there is now at least a headstone with his name on it, placed on ground that holds other family members. He is home."
With Memorial Day being observed over across the country, many people will honor the fallen. The remaining family members and friends of Pfc. John A. Malloch will also be remembering a life lost much too soon. They plan to hold a memorial service on Sunday, July 3, at the Brewer Cemetery in Robbinston beginning at 1 p.m. The family invites the public to attend.
In attendance will be a U.S. military honor guard presided over by retired Lt. Col. Andrew Pottle. A Perry native, Pottle did not fully know Malloch's story, but he knows of the service he gave to his country, and that is what matters. "We do this for the family, for us as fellow veterans, and we do this for John," says Pottle. "A veteran's service is pure. No matter the circumstances of their life or their death, it is about remembering them as a person and a veteran. Their story matters."