![\"salute](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/salute-for-James-Constance.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nYou probably read Hondo’s post<\/a> about Army Pfc. James L. Constant coming home from Korea nearly 63 years after he was killed in the war there. The Indy Star<\/a> reports that he was buried this Memorial Day weekend near Indianapolis after a long, slow journey;<\/p>\n He died at age 19 on Sept. 8, 1950, during a fierce battle in what is now South Korea. His body was soon recovered, but couldn\u2019t be identified. He was buried and transferred to several places abroad and in Hawaii, where other unidentified Korean War casualties are buried, before a successful identification was made last year, primarily through dental records.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Defense POW\/Missing Personnel Office tells the longer story about his trip home;<\/p>\n Army Pfc. James L. Constant, 19, of Beach Grove, Ind., will be buried May 25, in Indianapolis, Ind. In late 1950, Constant and elements of 2nd Infantry Division (ID) were defending the Naktong Bulge, near Changnyong, South Korea, when they were attacked by enemy forces. As a result of the battle, Constant and many other service members were reported missing.<\/p>\n In September 1950, the U.S. Army Graves Registration Service (AGRS) recovered the remains of a U.S. serviceman from a battlefield near Changnyong, South Korea. The remains were buried in a local 24th ID cemetery in Miryang, South Korea and were later transferred to the United Nations Cemetery in Tanggok. Several months later, the remains were disinterred and transferred to the U.S. Army\u2019s Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan for laboratory analysis.<\/p>\n In April 1955 a military review board declared the remains unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were transferred to Hawaii, where they were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the \u201cPunchbowl.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012, analysts from JPAC reevaluated Constant\u2019s records and determined that, due to the advances in technology, the remains recovered from the area near Changnyong should be exhumed for identification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Indy Star says that his surviving sisters, Betty Kelley, Margaret Rigdon and a nephew were present at the final ceremony to receive the flag from his coffin;<\/p>\n Pat Lewis and husband Donald, a Korean War veteran, came to show their respect Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a sad day, but it\u2019s a happy day to be able to have him back,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine waiting all those years to bring him home.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And we always bring them home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n