PFC Lawrence Samuel Gordon comes home
MCPO Ret. In TN sends us a link from CBS News about PFC Lawrence Samuel Gordon who is coming home after being buried for 70 years with his enemies;
Gordon’s family knew he’d been killed on August 13, 1944 during the failed attempt to surround the Germans at the Falaise Gap in France. He was one of 44 casualties in his reconnaissance division. The remains of 43 were identified and returned to their families or buried overseas. Gordon was the only one unaccounted for … until now.
The story of his coming home includes Lawrence Gordon, who was named after his deceased uncle and spent years trying to account for his namesake.
During a taped interview with Henry in 2012, Gordon described his frustration with the process. “Almost all of it is being done by private individuals. It has been handed over and there still doesn’t seem to be a spirit of cooperation, a desire to bring the body back, a desire to deal with it. It’s like we’ll put it on the pile and unfortunately it will be at the bottom of the pile and we may never get to it and that’s a frustrating feeling.”
Gordon and Henry appealed to the governments of Germany and France (who shared responsibility for the Mont-de-Huisnes German War Cemetery) to disinter the remains of crypt 40, burial chamber 57, coffin number 8209, which they believed belonged to PFC Gordon. Germany and France agreed. In fact, France ordered its national crime lab, l’Institut National de Police Scientifique(INPS), to run DNA tests on the remains at no charge.
But, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) stood in their way, showing no interest in coffin 8209’s occupant, but now that the work is done, they’re interested;
JPAC has now taken an active interest in the Gordon case, sending representatives to the University of Wisconsin for the next few days to examine test results.
As for the remains of Gordon, the family and Henry will go back to the cemetery in France at the end of May for a ceremony in Gordon’s honor. After that, the remains will be transported back to the U.S. on a commercial airliner as arranged by the family.
On August 13, the 70th anniversary of his death, Gordon will be buried near his family in Canada.
Welcome home, PFC.
Category: We Remember
Glad to hear he is coming home, thank you to France and Germany for their efforts in identifying his remains.
May he Rest in Peace and his family finally find comfort in his coming home.
I was confused about this soldier inasmuch as he was buried in a German cemetery and will be buried in Canada, yet JPAC (US) was intimately involved. Anyway, if you are curious, a link below explains the situation. PFC Gordon was born in Canada to American parents but he moved to Wyoming and enlisted in the US Army in Jan 1942. He was a member of a recon armored car crew that was hit in August 1944 and his body was not identifiable. However, he was wearing a German overcoat and, in the fog of war, was regarded as a German and buried as one.
http://www.7tharmddiv.org/3ad-lawrence-gordon.htm
Thank you for the clarifications.
May he now rest in peace near his family.
Rest in peace, elder brother-in-arms. I’m sorry it took so long to return you to your homeland.
Rest In Peace, Fallen Warrior.
Rest In Peace Sir. I am glad you are home Lawrence Gordon. Thank you for your service. For giving the “last full measure of devotion”. God bless your family now.
Rest in Peace Sir.
Glad they got him home. Along the same lines of being buried in the “wrong” Cemetery there is an obscure book that touches this a little.
A former Army Photo intel officer and NPS ranger named Greg Coco ( unfortunately deceased) wrote a book called “Wasted Valor, The Confederate Dead at Gettysburg”. All known to be CS dead were exhumed and moved to Richmond in the 1870s. There were dozens of gravesites containing scores of bodies all over the battlefield. Some were IDed some werent. All the Union dead were moved from temporary graves to What is now the national cemetery that was dedicated when Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address in Nov 1863. Coco’s dilgent research revealed at least half a dozen Confederates were mistakenly moved there, believing they were Union Soldiers. The common theme was that the grave markers were disfigured where the states of service were illegible. The Confederates still lie there.