Posted on 09/14/2005 3:40:00 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
ALLENTOWN - The remains of a Korean War soldier who was listed as missing in action nearly 55 years ago have been identified, a funeral home said.
Army Cpl. Edwin C. Steigerwalt, 22, of Lehighton, will be buried in Allentown on Friday with full military honors, according to the Heintzelman Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements.
"We've been waiting a long time for this to come," Steigerwalt's sister, Judith Kiser, told the Morning Call of Allentown. "It was something we promised our parents - that if one of us was alive when he was found, we'd have him properly buried."
Steigerwalt was last seen Nov. 30, 1950, as his unit fought Chinese forces near Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. After his remains were turned over by North Korea in 1993, they were sent to a military laboratory in Hawaii for DNA analysis.
Steigerwalt's remains were identified March 16, said Erika Ruthman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii. She said she did not know why it took so long for them to be identified.
Identification of Korean War dead has been difficult, because North Korea commingled many of the 208 sets of remains it returned between 1990 and 1994. More than 8,100 veterans of the 1950-53 conflict remain unaccounted for.
Steigerwalt is believed to be the first Pennsylvania MIA to be identified since 2000, when the remains of a Lancaster County Marine killed in Southeast Asia just after the Vietnam War were found and shipped home.
"It's rare, and I'm certainly glad it's happened," said Larry Reece, adjutant/quartermaster of the Pennsylvania chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars.
In addition to Kiser, Steigerwalt is survived by two other sisters.
So many years ... and now he is honored.
May he rest in peace.
I salute you.
May choirs of Angels sing thee to thy rest.
±
"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty." 
Toward FREEDOM
This is my Military/Veteran's Affairs ping list. FReep mail me if you want ON/OFF the list.
Welcome home Corporal Steigerwalt,Welcome home. Thank you for your service. Frozen Chosin (E-4) will never be forgotten.
If you are a Korean Veteran or a family member of one and reading this, my heartfelt thank you for your service and the sacrifice you all made in the forgotten war. If you were at the Reservoir - I salute you and remove my cover in your presence. Truer warriors have never been seen.
De Opresso Liber.
My wife's family is still waiting.
One last jab, huh.
Pleased the family can now know and bury him.
Bump
From Publishers Weekly:
Appleman's book clears up one of the nagging mysteries of the Korean War: the fate of the 7th U.S. Division's Task Force Faith between November 27 and December 1, 1950, when Chinese forces surrounded it along the icy shores of the Chosin Reservoir. Due to poor command decisions and lack of communication, only 385 out of some 3000 GIs made it back to the relative safety of the Marine perimeter nearby.
Appleman addresses the oft-debated question of why the Marines did not send a rescue force, and the degree to which the sacrifice of the GIs enabled the 1st Marine Division to accomplish its successful retreat.
Based on analysis of official records and interviews with survivors, this study can be appreciated as a highly suspenseful account of a military catastrophe and as an inverted object lesson in field command under the worst possible conditions. As the author remarks, "It would be hard to find a more nearly hopeless or more tragic story in American military history." Appleman wrote the highly regarded South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu.
No doubt this disapproval is due to the fact that our real adversaries in Korea were Stalin and Mao...not that silly little puppet of a man,Kim Il Sung.
My guess is that Corporal Stewigerwalt understood this,as did so many others who fought (and died) in Korea.All free people owe a huge debt to the likes of the Corporal.
May he rest in peace.
Welcome home, Army Cpl. Edwin C. Steigerwalt!!!
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