Posted on 11/24/2011 12:28:09 AM PST by Racehorse
After 60 years of waiting, worrying and wondering, the family of a young Army medic who died in the Korean War is preparing to give him a hometown military burial.
The remains of Pfc. Jimmie Jimenez Gaitan arrived Wednesday at San Antonio International Airport. Relatives who've long sought to bring him home were on the Tarmac.
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Adams said his uncle was one of more than 4,000 U.S. and United Nations troops whose skeletal remains were returned in 1954 in exchange for repatriation of some 13,000 North Korean and Chinese troops in an initiative known as “Operation Glory.”
Gaitan's remains long were kept in a vault marked “unknown” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, he said.
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Adams said his uncle was identified through dental records, including the No. 18 tooth missing from his jaw, and chest X-rays matching dimensions of his ribs and clavicle.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii determined he died at age 21 from an intestinal illness near Changsong, North Korea on May 24, 1951. His remains were identified Sept. 13.
Adams said his uncle was one of more than 4,000 U.S. and United Nations troops whose skeletal remains were returned in 1954 in exchange for repatriation of some 13,000 North Korean and Chinese troops in an initiative known as “Operation Glory.”
Gaitan's remains long were kept in a vault marked “unknown” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, he said.
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The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office in Washington estimates more than 8,000 Americans remain missing from the Korean War.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
But I do wonder why remains returned in 1954 took 57 years to identify?
Grandmothers die and ....
Many outstanding belated wishes of thanx-given and very happy holidy seaon directed to the survivor family!
PFC Gaitan, though your name was in doubt for many years, there was never any question about your sacrifices. Welcome home soldier!
I’m surprised that he survived long enough as a POW to die of an intestinal disease. The NK were animals and our troops found quite a few of our boys with their hands wired behind their backs with a bullet hole in the back of their heads.
About 100 days. Maybe the Russians wanted to interrogate him for some reason.
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