Four More Come Home
DPMO has announced the identification of three US MIAs from Korea and one US MIA from Southeast Asia.
- PFC Norman P. Dufresne, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 30 July 1950 near Chinju, South Korea. He was accounted for on 19 September 2013. He will be buried with full military honors on 19 October 2013 in Leominster, MA.
- CPL Robert J. Tait, Headquarters Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, US Army, was lost on 6 December 1950 near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. He was accounted for on 10 September 2013. He was buried with full military honors on 5 October 2013 in Bar Harbor, ME.
- CPL Harold A. Evans, Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was reported missing on 13 December 1950 while deployed east of the Chosin Reservoir near Sinhung-ri, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. He was accounted for on 26 September 2013. He will be buried with full military honors 12 October 2013 in Thief River Falls, MN.
- Col. Francis J. McGouldrick, 8th Tactical Bomb Squadron, 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, US Air Force, was lost on 13 December 1968 near Savannakhet Province, Laos. He was accounted for on 6 September 2013. Funeral date and location have not been announced.
Welcome home, my elder brothers-in-arms. Rest now in peace.
. . .
Over 73,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,900 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,640 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. If you are a relative of one of the individuals listed here (World War II – critical need), listed here (Korea), or listed here (Southeast Asia) – please consider reading this link to see if you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample.
If you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please submit one. By submitting a mtDNA sample, you may be able to help identify US remains that have been recovered and repatriated but not yet positively identified.
If you’re still skeptical, consider this: CPLs Tait’s and Evan’s remains were among those in 208 boxes of mixed remains returned to US control by North Korea between 1991 and 1994. mTDNA was among the techniques used to obtain positive identification of their remains.
Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all in the service of this nation.
Category: No Longer Missing
Welcome home. Rest well.
HAND SALUTE. READY TO.
What the Master Chief said.
I hear the drone of the pipes in the background …
I don’t think the majority of our country understands what it means to serve. They think it’s a job and compare it to their own. But you literally give up a normal life, including a normal family life. Cruises, deployments, extra duty, getting things right because LIVES depend upon all take precedence over family events… and even the end of the life can marred by this – especially in the cases where it takes so long for the bodies to come home.
I am watching my Dad suffer from a debilitating disease that has ruined all plans of a normal retirement, all directly service related, all due to his 20 year career in the Navy. He has said over and over again he wouldn’t change a thing either.
This commitment does NOT exist in the civilian world – the closest I could think might be cops – but even they get to come home, and be surrounded by family… not dying in some third world shit stain not appreciated by the very country you have dedicated your life to.
I am glad these people come home, and I hope some people actually start to understand what it means to serve.
Welcome home… thank God, they must have been identified before last week or we would be hearing that “they could not be IDed due to the shutdown.”
Welcome home Brothers … we are indebted to You for your service.
RIP and only soft landings from now on.
The last time Minnesota welcomed home a fallen hero from a previous war, the governor’s office ‘forgot’ to send the half staff proclamation. If it happens this time I will be a one man protest crew.
Not a “Forgotten War” and never forgotten!
I don’t comment on these reports as mush as I used to but I appreciate each of them. These men had loved ones, friends, buddies. Some of them were funny, others very bright, some quite talented. they dreamed of returning home to their lives or of building new ones when they got home. But it didn’t happen. we can gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kick something or other. Or we can say a prayer of thanks for them, honor their sacrifice, and live our lives more fully.