Posted on 07/06/2019 8:40:20 AM PDT by Lowell1775
BUTLER COUNTY —
Stevie Rose never met her uncle, Roger Lee Woods, but through the letters he mailed to his father, she understood what was going through his mind during the Korean War.
Twice in his hand-written letters, Woods asked about his sister, JoAnn, and the baby she was carrying. That girl was Rose, who was born in April 1950, one month after one of the letters arrived.
“That’s when I realized I was part of this story,” she said.
Army Pfc. Woods, a native of Hamilton County, was last seen on July 29, 1950. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recently announced Woods, 18, who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for on May 21, 2019.
In the summer of 1950, Woods was a member of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Regiment, fighting against members of the Korean People’s Army. Sixty-nine years ago he was reported missing in action in the vicinity of Kochang, South Korea. Absent of evidence of continued survival, the Department of the Army declared him deceased as of Dec. 31, 1953.
According to historical reports, the 565th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company recovered a set of remains initially designated as Unknown X-274 Miryang and later as Unknown X-274 Tanggok from an isolated grave in the vicinity of Kochang Town, South Korea. A tag that accompanied the remains claimed the remains had been removed from a single grave on Oct. 29, 1950.
On April 20, 1955, the remains were declared unidentifiable and were subsequently transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu and were interred as an Unknown.
In August 2018, following thorough historical and scientific analysis, X-274 was disinterred from the Punchbowl and sent to the laboratory for analysis.
To identify Woods’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological and chest radiograph comparison analysis, and circumstantial and material evidence.
Today, 7,652 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously returned by Korean officials, recovered from Korea by American recovery teams or disinterred from unknown graves.
Woods’ name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl along with others who are missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Throughout the process of waiting to hear if her uncle’s body ever was recovered, Rose said the search came to “a dead-end.” That’s when she asked her uncle for assistance.
“It’s about time you come home,” she told her uncle. “You need to help us.”
Then when Rose was notified, she became “unglued,” she said.
“I ran around the house and my husband thought I done lost my mind,” she said. “I kept crying. I couldn’t stop crying for two or three days. Ever since I’ve been overwhelmed with excitement.”
There was a pause on the phone: “He’s coming home,” she said.
His body will be flown to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Tuesday, then transported to the Evans Funeral Home, 1944 Ohio 28, Goshen. A visitation will be held at Evans Funeral Home, from 5-8 p.m. July 10. Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. July 11. Burial and military honors will be held immediately following the funeral service at Goshen Cemetery.
In the summer of 1950, Woods was a member of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Regiment, fighting against members of the Korean People’s Army. Sixty-nine years ago he was reported missing in action in the vicinity of Kochang, South Korea. Absent of evidence of continued survival, the Department of the Army declared him deceased as of Dec. 31, 1953.
OHIO PING!
Please let me know if you want on or off the Ohio Ping list.
“Another soldier’s remains returning ‘home’ to the region after 69 years (Ohio soldier 34th Div)”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3761989/posts
Another silent Trump victory the MSM has forgotten......
I have goosebumps. Welcome home, Pfc. Woods. May you be at peace.
I wonder if my cousin will ever come home from Korea.
Is there a freerepublic thread where we can tag this as another one of this President’s success? Even though most likely the story will not be widely acknowledged.
I was referring to the remains that NK has released to the US. This solder has always been here but just finally identified.......
These stories are amazing. My uncle was literally unrecoverable in the Philippines. To think that 65-70 years later he could be found and returned to Vermont seems like the stuff of science fiction.
He is interred in a grave in Manila, but there is no way they could have determined who was whom out of several boys.
Time passes and it seems to most people that this is not “important.” It is good that there will probably be no further MIAs in future wars. It is also good that our government still feels this is important.
One of my fascinations is how powerful the use of DNA has become since its structure was identified in late 1953. Like the Integrated Circuit (1958) and the L.A.S.E.R. (device) of 1960, it is hard to imagine the modern world without these technologies that were once mere laboratory curiosities.
Here DNA has restored another family, just as an earlier test displaced the Vietnam UNKOWN at Arlington National Cemetery to be restored to his own family. How many ‘unknowns’ will be able to be restored is impossible to guess yet it is but a single aspect in the unexpected outcome from that mid-Twentieth Century discovery.
May the soul of PFC Woods rest easier now that his mortal remains have been reunited with his family. R.I.P.
A personal observation here is that the above discoveries, along with countless others, were developed and expanded in our ‘despised’ capitalist system. This is not to say that there have not been any developments from socialist or theocratic systems but the numerical and significant counts appear to be largely due to the capitalist system.
May PFC Woods rest forever in the sheltering arms of our Eternal Savior.
Yours, TMN78247
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