[2Wycked]

The remains of a soldier who has been missing since the Korean War have finally been returned home.

Quote:

Almost 65 years after he went missing in war, Richmond soldier Army Cpl. Lindsey C. Lockett is coming back home. The Department of Defense recently notified his family, saying his remains had finally been identified.

“Being a soldier, and my father is a Marine, there’s great pride for us because he’s a fallen comrade but he’s also a father and a grandfather,” said Leonardo Lockett, the grandson.

Leonardo says he’s overwhelmed, as his family gets ready to bury his grandfather’s remains.

Cpl. Lockett was fighting in the Korean War in 1950 when he was captured by Chinese forces.

“From ‘51 to ‘54 he was pronounced MIA, then they found that he was captured, he was POW, and he died in captivity,” said Leonardo.

They believe the soldier died some time the spring of 1951.

Lockett went to war when he was 24 years old and left behind a young widow with an unborn son. Leonardo says his grandmother is still in disbelief.

“She knows now that it’s confirmed. But she feels like when he’s finally put in the ground he’ll have his final rest, that he’s home,” said Leonardo Lockett.

On April 11th, there will be a ceremony and burial for Lockett with full military honors.

Leonardo says it’s especially meaningful for him and his father, who have also served in the military.

“Through all this time, 65 years, the army never gave up on my grandfather. That just bestows upon what the military is all about,” he said.

It will be an emotional ceremony, but Leonardo says it will be a happy one as the family can finally say goodbye, and bring their soldier back home.

“He’s been gone for so long, we just want him to be here with us,” said Leonardo Lockett.

The ceremony for Lockett will be at 11 a.m. at New Deliverance Evangelistic Church. That’s at 1701 Turner Road in North Chesterfield.

The burial will be in the Forest Lawn Cemetery at 4000 Pilots Ln. in Richmond.

It is good to see that our government does do some things right. I can only imagine the dull agony that must live on in a family when closure isn't brought in MIA situations like this. Identifying the remains and bringing them back to the family has to be bring a tremendous amount of relief to the family and give them a definitive sense of closure.

On a side note, notice that the gentleman in question is black. He left and came back to two very different nations.

[2Wycked]

Another one of our boys has been returned home:

Quote:

The remains of a Korean War veteran were returned to his hometown of Waltham Thursday, 65 years after he was declared missing in action.

Army Sergeant Robert C. Dakin was 22 when he went missing after a battle near the Chosin Reservoir on Dec. 12, 1950. He was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, according to a statement from the US Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

His status was later changed to deceased when no information could be found about his loss.

Dakin’s remains were escorted from Logan International Airport by State and Waltham police to the Joyce Funeral Home Thursday afternoon. Family and friends will honor him throughout the weekend with a wake on Friday and a funeral on Saturday.

The funeral will include a horse-drawn procession with local police and fire officials, veterans, bagpipers, and drummers.

Melinda Fonvielle, 61, of Fleming Island, Fla., said that when the US Army called to tell her they had identified her uncle’s remains, she “busted out crying.”

She said she had grown up wondering why her grandmother was always so sad. Now, she said, her grandmother would be overjoyed to have closure to her son’s disappearance.

“We’ve known about this all our lives,” she said. “It kind of put a wet blanket on the family, and it was always there.”

Fonvielle received the news about her uncle about a month ago, and said it has given her family a lot of the answers they needed.

“It was surprising to us that it hit us like it did,” she said. “It was almost like a spiritual thing.”

Dakin was born in Waltham on June 4, 1928, and lived there until he enlisted in the military. He was one of five siblings and was his parents’ only son, according to an obituary published by the Joyce Funeral Home.

Fonvielle’s mother, Barbara Rewis, is Dakin’s only sister who is still alive. Rewis also lives in Fleming Island but was too sick to travel to Massachusetts for the funeral.

Dakin’s remains were one of at least 600 bodies returned to the United States by the North Korean government between 1990 and 1994. The remains were returned in a total of 208 boxes, and they are still being identified.

Dakin was identified through circumstantial evidence and two forms of DNA analysis, the Defense Department said.

More than 7,800 American veterans from the Korean War are still unaccounted for.

[polar]

2Wycked, thanks for the thread.

Stories like these are some of the most inspiring things about the United States and its military. A friend of mine told me a similar story.

His grandmother's uncle was on the crew of a bomber plane in the Pacific theatre. His plane went MIA some time around 1944 with little explanation other than the possibility of stormy weather.

Nearly fifty years after the war's end, an American tourist hiking through the jungles of a tropical island stumbled upon the battered remains of a bomber. He reached out to the local embassy, and the US military got involved in recovering the plane and the remains of the half dozen airmen within.

A couple of years later, following a comprehensive investigation and DNA testing, the airmen's next of kin were notified. The immediate relatives were invited to an expenses-paid trip to DC for the airmen's burial at Arlington cemetery with full military honors.

Around one hundred soldiers participated in the ceremony of bringing the airmen to their final resting place, from the chapel in Arlington to the horse-drawn hearses, parade, and 21-gun salute. A truly honorable way of closing a decades-long mystery.

Not everything might be perfect with the state of the country or the military, but having the creed of "No man left behind" upheld to this degree is a truly inspiring thing.