Posted on 06/23/2006 11:46:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
A Northern California family's decades-old war story acquired an emotional epilogue on Friday when partial remains of an Army airman who disappeared in the South Pacific more than six decades ago were buried with military honors.
Second Lt. John Austin Widsteen was 22 years old on April 16, 1944, when he and 10 fellow airmen aboard the Royal Flush failed to return to their Papua New Guinea base from a bombing mission in what is now Indonesia.
Widsteen's baby sister, now 77, was his closest surviving relative at the funeral, which also drew a pair of gray-haired cousins and several nieces and nephews.
"He is still that 22-year-old," said Widsteen's sister, June Robertson. "I can't imagine him as an old man."
Since 1946, when the Army declared the crew of the B-24 Liberator bomber dead, the official explanation was that the Royal Flush probably crashed into the sea during a violent storm that also crippled or destroyed 37 other planes. In all, 54 soldiers died on that "Black Sunday," the largest non-combat aviation casualty toll of World War II.
Robertson said she had long-since made peace with her brother's death when her older sister heard from the Pentagon four years ago that a New Guinea villager hunting wallaby in a dense mountain forest had spotted two sets of dog tags below the cockpit of a plane caught in the trees.
"It felt like getting socked in the stomach," she said of hearing that his body might be recovered after so many years. "We never thought we'd again hear about it or know anything about it."
Using DNA samples from surviving relatives, the Army finished identifying the bodies of the Royal Flush's missing airmen earlier this year. Their remains were interred in a common coffin at Arlington National Cemetery in April, but Robertson set some ashes aside so her brother could be laid to rest next to their mother's grave in Palo Alto.
"Your children aren't supposed to go away before you," she said. "A lot of mothers are experiencing that now."
Because their father died when Widsteen was 11, he was the man of the house when he enlisted in the Army at age 18. Robertson recalled their mother selling the family car because her oldest child and only son, who sent his military salary home to help support his younger sisters, wasn't around to tinker with it.
The last letter Widsteen sent home reflected his paternal role. It was to his middle sister, who was about to get married.
"He said, 'Do you really think you love this guy? Do you think he will take good care of you?'" Robertson said.
At Friday's service, Army reservists played taps, gave Widsteen a three-volley salute and presented his family with a folded American flag and ribbons honoring his World War II service and three Asian Pacific campaigns.
Army Chief Warrant Officer John Monks said that even with the country busy fighting another war, the nation can't afford to forget its past heroes.
"They are all those who stepped forward in our country's hour of need so all of us can enjoy our freedoms," he said.
These stories are always so touching and now even more so since a cousin in the extended branch of the family was laid to rest a couple of years ago. He was killed at Pearl Harbor.
Rest in peace, Second Lt. John Austin Widsteen. Hero, long lost but never forgotten. Welcome home!
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Lt. John Austin Widsteen, one of America's finest has come home. May he rest in peace.
What a poorly written story. They never tell where or how they found the remains.
a New Guinea villager hunting wallaby in a dense mountain forest had spotted two sets of dog tags below the cockpit of a plane caught in the trees.
Oops. Sorry.
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