Posted on 08/01/2018 10:45:19 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence picked up two family members of American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War as he traveled to Hawaii to attend a ceremony marking the return of U.S. troops' alleged remains.
Pence stopped in California en route to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, where a ceremony will be held 2 p.m. Wednesday (local time) following the repatriation of 55 sets of remains from North Korea last week.
"As we travel to @JointBasePHH, Karen & I are honored to be joined by Diana Brown Sanfilippo & her husband Robert," Pence tweeted early Wednesday. "Diana lost her father in the Korean War during a recon mission. We're also honored to have Rick Downes, whose father was lost while operating radar on a B-26 bomber."
Reporting from Hawaii, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who traveled with Pence on Air Force 2, said Sanfilippo and Downes were three or four years old when their fathers were sent to fight in the Korean War.
The men were both pilots and both first lieutenants.
"They recalled to me and recalled in media reports that last hug and that last kiss to their father before they went to that war and ultimately never came home, both shot down, remains never found," Hegseth said. "They dedicated their lives for the last 60 years finding out what happened to their fathers."
North Korea delivered the remains last week as part of an agreement reached by its leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump at their historic summit in Singapore in June.
On Friday a U.S. military aircraft transported the remains out of North Korea to Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. And following a ceremony at the base earlier Wednesday, the remains were flown to Hawaii for forensic identification.
The U.S. estimates that the remains of some 5,300 American soldiers have yet to be recovered from North Korea.
The only question now is...how can we tie this into Russian collusion...
This is a historic day but very few will even know it happened.
They only got 1 dogtag back. What would the NORKs do with American Soldiers’ dogtags?
These are probably not recovered mainly by DPRK government or Army officials but by civilians during their daily routines. Very few read & write English so the importance of the dog tags may be lost on them.
Umm... Sorry, but “local time...” —where?
local to Hawaii? Cal? East Coast? Zulu?
(Sorry...)
I’ve been switching around all morning looking for it, and I am well aware that it’s still “early” in Hawaii as of this writing (2pm EDST); but I haven’t run across any TeeVee coverage yet, and I should imagine there will be some...
WoB (NC)
If this is a Trump accomplishment, no media coverage.
I woke up in the middle of the night and saw the departure ceremony. It was really beautiful. I’m so proud of this country and how we honor our fallen, no matter how long ago.
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