thedrifter
03-22-09, 08:25 AM
Sunday, Mar 22, 2009
Posted on Sun, Mar. 22, 2009
Time may finally heal sister's anguished heart
By DAVID CASSTEVENS
dcasstevens@star-telegram.com
Last month, a 79-year-old Fort Worth woman received a military document in the mail.
"Dear Mrs. Francis:"
The cover letter was from the U.S. Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Center.
The chief of the Past Conflict Repatriations Branch informed Delona Francis that the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office was providing the "Loss Incident Summary Report" and an accompanying map of the Korean Peninsula which pertains to . . .
Dee’s hazel eyes filled, blurring the words.
". . . your brother . . ."
Private First Class Jodie S. Reese Jr.
Alone, in her modest home, the soldier’s next of kin pored over every line of the three-page report.
When she finished, as the memories washed over her, hope kindled in her anguished heart.
"I was thinking," she said, "He’s coming home . . ."
The last goodbye
Dee still remembers the day Jodie left — the last time she saw her 18-year-old brother — more than 60 years ago.
She and her mother drove to the bus station in McAlester, Okla., to say goodbye. This spirited, independent youth — he once mowed a neighbor’s lawn for milk bottles and sold the empties for cash — had joined the Army and was leaving for boot camp at Fort Knox, Ky.
Reese shipped overseas and later re-enlisted.
Meanwhile, his sister finished high school in 1947 and moved to Fort Worth, where she attended business college and married.
Jodie Reese died in October 1950. He was 22.
His mother and father received word in a telegram but waited several weeks to inform their daughter in person.
The Reeses drove to Fort Worth on the day Dee returned home from the hospital, cradling her future, a baby boy.
During the Korean War (1950-53) about 54,000 Americans lost their lives. More than 100,000 were wounded. About 8,000 were unaccounted for.
This family never had a flag-draped coffin or funeral service.
Private Reese didn’t come home.
"My parents," Francis remembered, "never did get over it."
The circumstances of Reese’s death — the whereabouts of his remains — lived on as a mystery until recently when the soldier’s white-haired sister received an unexpected phone call followed by the military report that finally provided some answers.
POWs gunned down
According to the Army, Reese, assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, was taken captive Aug. 11, 1950, while helping defend an airfield in South Korea from an attack by up to 2,000 North Korean guerrillas.
He and other American prisoners were marched hundreds of miles north.
The enemy forced some captives to travel barefoot.
The average food ration was one rice ball a day and little or no water. Many prisoners died from malnutrition, dysentery, beriberi and pneumonia.
Reese arrived in Seoul in late August or early September.
"He was among many POWs whose names appear on black boards in the school house where they were held," the report states. "The North Korean guards simply forgot to erase the black boards when they left."
After Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed the Marines at Inchon this group of prisoners was hurriedly marched northward to Pyongyang and on Oct. 18 loaded onto railroad boxcars. With American forces closing in, the train proceeded to a tunnel near Sunchon. About 100 men were taken off the train before it left.
A short time later, the report said, North Korean guards attempted to shoot and kill all the men before fleeing themselves.
When rescue forces arrived the next day, about 25 men were still alive. They recounted what had happened and helped identify many of the dead.
John E. Martin of Ferndale, Mich., was among the survivors of the Sunchon tunnel massacre, and in 1953 he described the event before a congressional subcommittee investigating Communist atrocities in Korea.
Martin said prisoners were ordered to crouch, and then gunned down. After the volley, Martin testified, a member of the firing squad "went down and kicked somebody and if he groaned they shot him again, or bayoneted him, and then kicked somebody else."
The report Francis received confirmed, "PFC Reese was among those killed by the guards."
Bodies buried near the rail line later were exhumed and moved to a United Nations military cemetery at Pyongyang. Reece, "man X-45", was buried in grave No. 1-13-184.
Francis still can picture him, that happy face, forever young.
"My mother would tell us we could go outside and play, but don’t go past the corner," she said, recalling their childhood. "Jodie would take off and be out of sight. He went any place he wanted to go."
Sharing her deepest feelings is difficult for this reserved, private woman.
But she wants others to know this.
"He always stood up for me," she said. "He had a heart of gold."
Finding families
How the Army found Dee Francis is a story within a story.
In January the Tulsa World published an article about a 79-year-old Korean War veteran whose tireless mission is to find families of missing servicemen who served during that conflict. Harold Davis has located several hundred relatives, and his search has spread nationwide.
"I don’t get a penny and don’t want one," Davis said from his home in Wilmington, N.C.
The newspaper story listed 37 Oklahomans whose families he was seeking.
One soldier was Jodie Silas Reese from Pittsburg County.
A reader saw the name and called Davis. That person suggested he contact Gladys Hulsey, who is Dee Francis’ aunt by marriage.
Hulsey told the researcher that Reese’s sister lived somewhere in Texas. Davis found Francis’ address and telephone number through an Internet search.
He called the woman one evening in late January.
"It got my attention," said Francis, who was shocked to hear this stranger speak her brother’s name.
Davis put her in touch with the chief of the Korean War section of the Army Past Conflict Reparations Branch. The Army is attempting to locate more than 6,000 families to collect DNA samples for the purpose of identifying soldiers from World War II and wars in Korea and Vietnam.
The Army mailed Francis a DNA sampling kit that includes a cotton-tipped sterile swab. She provided a sample from inside her mouth and returned the material to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab in Rockville, Md.
'Unknowns’ buried
After the Korean War, more than 4,000 sets of human remains were returned by the Chinese and North Koreans during Operation Glory. All but 416 of the Americans among them were identified and returned to their families.
The report Francis received said that the 416 "Unknowns" are now buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
"At this moment," the report states, "we cannot be certain whether PFC Reese’s remains were among those returned or whether they are still buried in Pyongyang. . . . For now, we are attempting to develop any possible leads. To date, 11 sets of Korean War remains have been exhumed [in Hawaii] and six have been identified. Efforts at resolution, including preparations for future work in North Korea, continue."
One man isn’t content to wait to honor Private Reese.
Bill Steelman is a longtime friend of Francis and a proud veteran of what often is referred to as America’s "forgotten war." After hearing her story, he arranged to have the combat soldier’s name placed on the face of a black granite war memorial in Tye Cemetery off Oak Grove Road, near Burleson.
The stone lists hundreds of the fallen, dating back to the Civil War.
Steelman said he is convinced that Private Jodie Reese Jr. will come home.
If and when that day comes, Francis wants to bury her brother’s remains alongside Jodie’s parents, who rest in a small cemetery in McAlester.
"I think it’s what my mother would want me to do," Francis said.
"That would make her happy."
Until then Jodie’s sister waits, sustained daily by her tested faith.
"I know the Lord knows where he is," Dee Francis said. "I get peace knowing he’s with Him."
Korean War Project The Korean War Project is a nonprofit corporation based in Dallas that oversees a program to identify MIAs and find their families.
Nine years ago the project evolved into an Internet-based initiative called Finding The Families.
The Korean War Project maintains the most comprehensive public database of Korean War casualties available to the public.
For information: www.koreanwar.org or call 214-320-0342
I know the Lord knows where he is. I get peace knowing he’s with Him."
Delona Francis,
sister of missing soldier
Ellie
Posted on Sun, Mar. 22, 2009
Time may finally heal sister's anguished heart
By DAVID CASSTEVENS
dcasstevens@star-telegram.com
Last month, a 79-year-old Fort Worth woman received a military document in the mail.
"Dear Mrs. Francis:"
The cover letter was from the U.S. Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Center.
The chief of the Past Conflict Repatriations Branch informed Delona Francis that the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office was providing the "Loss Incident Summary Report" and an accompanying map of the Korean Peninsula which pertains to . . .
Dee’s hazel eyes filled, blurring the words.
". . . your brother . . ."
Private First Class Jodie S. Reese Jr.
Alone, in her modest home, the soldier’s next of kin pored over every line of the three-page report.
When she finished, as the memories washed over her, hope kindled in her anguished heart.
"I was thinking," she said, "He’s coming home . . ."
The last goodbye
Dee still remembers the day Jodie left — the last time she saw her 18-year-old brother — more than 60 years ago.
She and her mother drove to the bus station in McAlester, Okla., to say goodbye. This spirited, independent youth — he once mowed a neighbor’s lawn for milk bottles and sold the empties for cash — had joined the Army and was leaving for boot camp at Fort Knox, Ky.
Reese shipped overseas and later re-enlisted.
Meanwhile, his sister finished high school in 1947 and moved to Fort Worth, where she attended business college and married.
Jodie Reese died in October 1950. He was 22.
His mother and father received word in a telegram but waited several weeks to inform their daughter in person.
The Reeses drove to Fort Worth on the day Dee returned home from the hospital, cradling her future, a baby boy.
During the Korean War (1950-53) about 54,000 Americans lost their lives. More than 100,000 were wounded. About 8,000 were unaccounted for.
This family never had a flag-draped coffin or funeral service.
Private Reese didn’t come home.
"My parents," Francis remembered, "never did get over it."
The circumstances of Reese’s death — the whereabouts of his remains — lived on as a mystery until recently when the soldier’s white-haired sister received an unexpected phone call followed by the military report that finally provided some answers.
POWs gunned down
According to the Army, Reese, assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, was taken captive Aug. 11, 1950, while helping defend an airfield in South Korea from an attack by up to 2,000 North Korean guerrillas.
He and other American prisoners were marched hundreds of miles north.
The enemy forced some captives to travel barefoot.
The average food ration was one rice ball a day and little or no water. Many prisoners died from malnutrition, dysentery, beriberi and pneumonia.
Reese arrived in Seoul in late August or early September.
"He was among many POWs whose names appear on black boards in the school house where they were held," the report states. "The North Korean guards simply forgot to erase the black boards when they left."
After Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed the Marines at Inchon this group of prisoners was hurriedly marched northward to Pyongyang and on Oct. 18 loaded onto railroad boxcars. With American forces closing in, the train proceeded to a tunnel near Sunchon. About 100 men were taken off the train before it left.
A short time later, the report said, North Korean guards attempted to shoot and kill all the men before fleeing themselves.
When rescue forces arrived the next day, about 25 men were still alive. They recounted what had happened and helped identify many of the dead.
John E. Martin of Ferndale, Mich., was among the survivors of the Sunchon tunnel massacre, and in 1953 he described the event before a congressional subcommittee investigating Communist atrocities in Korea.
Martin said prisoners were ordered to crouch, and then gunned down. After the volley, Martin testified, a member of the firing squad "went down and kicked somebody and if he groaned they shot him again, or bayoneted him, and then kicked somebody else."
The report Francis received confirmed, "PFC Reese was among those killed by the guards."
Bodies buried near the rail line later were exhumed and moved to a United Nations military cemetery at Pyongyang. Reece, "man X-45", was buried in grave No. 1-13-184.
Francis still can picture him, that happy face, forever young.
"My mother would tell us we could go outside and play, but don’t go past the corner," she said, recalling their childhood. "Jodie would take off and be out of sight. He went any place he wanted to go."
Sharing her deepest feelings is difficult for this reserved, private woman.
But she wants others to know this.
"He always stood up for me," she said. "He had a heart of gold."
Finding families
How the Army found Dee Francis is a story within a story.
In January the Tulsa World published an article about a 79-year-old Korean War veteran whose tireless mission is to find families of missing servicemen who served during that conflict. Harold Davis has located several hundred relatives, and his search has spread nationwide.
"I don’t get a penny and don’t want one," Davis said from his home in Wilmington, N.C.
The newspaper story listed 37 Oklahomans whose families he was seeking.
One soldier was Jodie Silas Reese from Pittsburg County.
A reader saw the name and called Davis. That person suggested he contact Gladys Hulsey, who is Dee Francis’ aunt by marriage.
Hulsey told the researcher that Reese’s sister lived somewhere in Texas. Davis found Francis’ address and telephone number through an Internet search.
He called the woman one evening in late January.
"It got my attention," said Francis, who was shocked to hear this stranger speak her brother’s name.
Davis put her in touch with the chief of the Korean War section of the Army Past Conflict Reparations Branch. The Army is attempting to locate more than 6,000 families to collect DNA samples for the purpose of identifying soldiers from World War II and wars in Korea and Vietnam.
The Army mailed Francis a DNA sampling kit that includes a cotton-tipped sterile swab. She provided a sample from inside her mouth and returned the material to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab in Rockville, Md.
'Unknowns’ buried
After the Korean War, more than 4,000 sets of human remains were returned by the Chinese and North Koreans during Operation Glory. All but 416 of the Americans among them were identified and returned to their families.
The report Francis received said that the 416 "Unknowns" are now buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
"At this moment," the report states, "we cannot be certain whether PFC Reese’s remains were among those returned or whether they are still buried in Pyongyang. . . . For now, we are attempting to develop any possible leads. To date, 11 sets of Korean War remains have been exhumed [in Hawaii] and six have been identified. Efforts at resolution, including preparations for future work in North Korea, continue."
One man isn’t content to wait to honor Private Reese.
Bill Steelman is a longtime friend of Francis and a proud veteran of what often is referred to as America’s "forgotten war." After hearing her story, he arranged to have the combat soldier’s name placed on the face of a black granite war memorial in Tye Cemetery off Oak Grove Road, near Burleson.
The stone lists hundreds of the fallen, dating back to the Civil War.
Steelman said he is convinced that Private Jodie Reese Jr. will come home.
If and when that day comes, Francis wants to bury her brother’s remains alongside Jodie’s parents, who rest in a small cemetery in McAlester.
"I think it’s what my mother would want me to do," Francis said.
"That would make her happy."
Until then Jodie’s sister waits, sustained daily by her tested faith.
"I know the Lord knows where he is," Dee Francis said. "I get peace knowing he’s with Him."
Korean War Project The Korean War Project is a nonprofit corporation based in Dallas that oversees a program to identify MIAs and find their families.
Nine years ago the project evolved into an Internet-based initiative called Finding The Families.
The Korean War Project maintains the most comprehensive public database of Korean War casualties available to the public.
For information: www.koreanwar.org or call 214-320-0342
I know the Lord knows where he is. I get peace knowing he’s with Him."
Delona Francis,
sister of missing soldier
Ellie