A soldier with intensive household within the area went lacking in motion after changing into a prisoner of conflict through the Korean Conflict 73 years in the past.
However a relative from Lynwood donated her DNA within the hope of figuring out his stays and it paid off.
Army Sgt. Cresenciano “Chano” Garcia Jr. was ultimately recognized, bringing closure to his household who had been lengthy left to surprise about his destiny.
The soldier from Laredo, Texas, died throughout a demise march through the Korean Conflict. He is being returned to his household, who could have a celebration of life in Gary in September earlier than a burial subsequent to his mother and father in Texas in October.
“He was the youngest of 5 youngsters. There’s some discrepancy when he joined the military but it surely’s believed he was 17 years outdated as a result of his dad needed to signal for him,” stated relative Sandy Robust from Lynwood. “About 90% of his household is right here within the Area.”
Three of his sisters moved from the border city in Texas to East Chicago and his household has since fanned out throughout the Area. He now has household in East Chicago, Hammond, Highland, Griffith, Portage, Cedar Lake, Lake of the 4 Seasons and Lynwood simply throughout the state line in Illinois.
“That is partly what led him to affix the Army,” stated Robust, who was Garcia’s niece. “It was out of spite. My mother moved to East Chicago and he needed to maneuver up right here along with her however his mother and father would not enable him to maneuver away so he joined the Army.”
He enlisted whereas the Korean Conflict was raging and went to primary coaching at Fort Lewis in Washington. Garcia was deployed to Korea with Headquarters Firm, ninth Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division in 1950. He was reported lacking in motion throughout a battle by Kunu-ri in South Korea in December of that 12 months.
He wrote common letters to his grandmother, which the household nonetheless has and saved in sequential order. She feared one thing was amiss when the letters stopped coming after which grim-faced troopers in uniform confirmed up on their doorstep someday with grave information.
His stays weren’t recovered. He was formally declared useless in February of 1951 in POW Camp 5 within the Democratic Individuals’s Republic of Korea.
“He was in North Korea in a river by China on a demise stroll. One witness noticed him drop on the aspect of the highway and one other noticed he was too weak to hold on. That they had visible affirmation when he fell useless on the aspect of the highway.”
He died a corporal and was posthumously promoted to sergeant.
Robust was in Washington D.C. on union enterprise for the United Steelworkers union again in 2006 with Garcia’s sister and mom. They determined to donate their DNA for a possible match regardless that they thought there was a slim to none probability he would ever be recognized.
“Flash ahead to this 12 months and we had been instructed it was a 99.9% DNA match they usually had discovered his stays,” she stated. “That they had an entire slideshow. It appeared like an NCIS-type factor. It was an incredible miracle. They discovered 90% of his physique, together with his cranium, femur and jawbone. We broke down crying on the Army using to see the skeletal stays specified by the pictures. It brings it full circle. I’ve heard his identify over time and by no means had the possibility to fulfill him however this introduced him to life. I am glad my blood gave closure to the household. When he was buried DNA wasn’t accessible.”
He died younger. He by no means bought the possibility to marry or have kids.
However his reminiscence lives on within the household.
Robust nonetheless has three Mexican cash Garcia obtained as a memento on a visit throughout the border and gave to a good friend earlier than he deployed to conflict. The good friend held onto them after studying of Garcia’s demise and ultimately gave them to the household.
Garcia was presumed lacking however turned out to have really been buried anonymously on U.S. soil for effectively over a half-century.
North Korea and the US reached an settlement to trade conflict useless in 1954. Garcia’s stays had been despatched to the US however had been by no means recognized.
He was buried as an unknown on the Nationwide Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, colloquially referred to as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii in 1956.
“For the reason that Nineteen Eighties the Army has been working to establish all of the stays they discovered within the Punchbowl,” she stated “They have packing containers of bones with numbers.”
His stays had been exhumed in 2019 for extra testing. A historian and forensic anthropologist decided the stays may be Garcia in order that they had been despatched to a Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company Laboratory for dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA evaluation.
A rosette shall be positioned by his identify on the Courts of the Lacking on the Punchbowl in Honolulu. A celebration of life will happen from midday till 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16 on the United Steelworkers Union’s McBridge Corridor at 1301 Texas St. in Gary. At the least 500 persons are anticipated to prove.
“It is a ceremony for members of the family who cannot get right down to Laredo. The navy shall be placing on providers when he will get to his remaining resting place,” stated relative Joe Perez, a union chief for the Worldwide Longshoremen Affiliation on the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. “I’ve heard plenty of tales about him, that he was a really good-looking, very honorable and really prideful man. It is an incredible feeling to have some closure. My aunt donated her DNA to the navy database and gave us a chance to get some closure.”
The general public is welcome to attend the ceremony, which is able to embody faucets and a 21-gun salute from a neighborhood Veterans of Overseas Wars chapter.
He shall be buried in Laredo, Texas, on Oct. 14.
His nephew Rolando Vera stated the household was given the selection of leaving him within the Punchbowl, having him buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery or having him buried at any navy submit within the nation. They opted to bury him along with his mother and father in his hometown.
Vera, who lives in Laredo, remembers going along with his mom continuously to a monument downtown for the Korean MIA/POW. He was so younger he did not initially grasp the idea.
“Everyone was holding out hope sooner or later he can be situated,” he stated. “My mom, his sister, learn a newspaper article within the native paper within the Nineteen Seventies about POW/MIAs who survived by one way or the other mixing in with the natives. It has been an extended highway for the final 73 years. However he is lastly getting a navy funeral.”
After a suburban Houston newspaper article advised it, Vera is wanting into getting a neighborhood faculty in Texas named after Garcia. Laredo is within the means of constructing 4 elementary faculties to attempt to sustain with inhabitants development there.
“The article stated he can be anyone deserving of getting a college named after him and he was a real hero,” he stated. “It has been an incredible journey and there is been fairly a little bit of curiosity. I am simply blown away by all of the curiosity being proven by individuals who did not know him however admired him for being patriotic.”
Robust hopes that by sharing her story extra folks associated to POW/MIAs will think about donating their DNA within the hope of discovering a match.
“I have been requested to think about going to conventions to share my story,” she stated. “It has been so shifting, the miracle of it. We thought there was no probability of figuring out him however you by no means know. There are hundreds who nonetheless must be recognized. Extra folks giving their blood would in all probability assist.”
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