Missing POW’s Remains Returned to His Widow 63 Years After His Death

[Subdeacon Joe]

http://ktla.com/2013/12/20/missing-pows-remains-returned-to-his-widow-63-years-after-his-death/#ixzz2o4y2PgYM

Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt told his wife to remarry if he didn’t
come back from the war. She told him no. He had a hard enough time
getting her to say yes. He was it.

 

For 63 years, the World War II and Korean War veteran was missing in
action and presumed dead, but Clara Gantt, 94, held out hope and never
remarried.

On a cold, dark Friday morning on the Los Angeles International
Airport tarmac, the widow stood from her wheelchair and cried as her
husband’s flag-draped casket arrived home.

“I am very, very proud of him. He was a wonderful husband, an
understanding man,” she told TV reporters at the airport. “I always did
love my husband, we was two of one kind, we loved each other. And that
made our marriage complete.”

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-widow-reunited-missing-pows-remains-20131220,0,6709931.story#ixzz2o4yjP3Rt

 

Joseph Gantt joined the Army
in 1942 and served in the South Pacific during WWII. He met his wife on
a train from Texas to Los Angeles in 1946 and they married two years
later. They had no children.

In the Korean War, he was assigned as a field medic, Battery C, 503rd
Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, when he was taken
prisoner by North Korean forces in December 1950. He died in March 1951,
it was learned later, but his remains were only recently returned to
the U.S. and identified, said Bob Kurkjian, executive director of USO
Greater Los Angeles Area.

Clara Gantt, of Inglewood, bought a home and got a gardener so that
when her husband returned, he wouldn’t have to work in the yard — he
could just go fishing and do whatever he wanted, she said.

“I bought a home for him. And I am in that home now,” she said.

In her bedroom, the widow keeps a shrine with her husband’s awards,
including the Bronze Star with Valor, awarded posthumously for his
combat leadership actions while defending his unit's position, and a
Purple Heart, Kurkjian said.

Joseph Gantt will be buried later this month.

The pylons at LAX glowed red, white and blue in honor of the
veteran's return, and an Airport Police and Army honor guard met the
plane as it touched down from Honolulu, where the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command and forensics labs are located.

“It’s a holiday homecoming for the Gantt family to finally be able to
close that chapter and move forward knowing with certainty that their
husband, uncle, great uncle is finally home,” Kurkjian said.

This is third Korean War veteran whose remains have been brought home in the last 18 months, he said.

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

North Korea has a lot of GI remains. They release some occasionally at their whim or when they want some political or trade favor. Bastards!

[Trailrider #896]

R.I.P.!

[Branchwater Jack SASS #88854]

I read this story yseterday and my heart just ached for the widow. At least, now she knows where he is and they can be buried together when, alas, her time on this world is complete.

[Subdeacon Joe]

North Korea has a lot of GI remains. They release some occasionally at their whim or when they want some political or trade favor. Bastards!

 

Maybe if we let them keep Dennis Rodman.....

 

I read this story yseterday and my heart just ached for the widow. At least, now she knows where he is and they can be buried together when, alas, her time on this world is complete.

 

Yeah. I have a feeling that her time will be up quite soon, now that her husband is back. She must be one hell of a woman.

[Calico Mary]

That, gentleman, is true love.....