News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: A Long, Lonely Journey Home

Date: August 23, 2001

"Remains begin journey home from North Korea
by Capt. Michael Braibish
374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

08/22/01 - YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AFPN) -- Nature itself seemed to bow to the solemnity of the United Nations Command repatriation ceremony here Aug. 21.

The drenching rains and gusts of Typhoon Pabuk calmed as the U.N. honor guard stepped from a C-130 Hercules, bearing human remains believed to belong to a U.S. serviceman missing in action from the Korean War.

"Present ... arms!" ordered the honor guard commander, and the nearly two hundred people in attendance gave their respect to the fallen warrior.

In quiet succession the honor guard carried the remains of eight more people into the reception hangar, completing the first leg of a decades long journey home.

As the last note of Taps rolled across the flightline and the ceremony concluded, Typhoon Pabuk began to pour its rain and gusts over the base once more.

A joint U.S.-North Korean team operating in Unsan and Kujang counties and along the Chong Chon River, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, North Korea, recovered the remains during operations that began last month.

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers fell in this area during battles between Communist forces and the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division and 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions in November 1950.

The Defense Department's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office negotiated an agreement with the North Koreans last year which led to the scheduling of this year's operations.

The remains will be flown to Hawaii where the Army's Central Identification Laboratory will begin the forensic identification process.

Of the 88,000 U.S. servicemembers missing in action from all conflicts, more than 8,100 are from the Korean War.
(Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces News Service)"