Homecoming Day Arrives for Korean War Soldier

A Missouri soldier who was killed 68 years ago during the Korean War has been reburied close to home after his remains were identified through DNA.

The St. Joseph News-Press reports that U.S. Army Cpl. Frederick Eugene Coon, of St. Joseph, was last seen manning a roadblock on July 29, 1950. The 22-year-old member of the 24th Infantry Division initially was buried by a South Korean villager and then was interred for 65 years in Hawaii as an unknown soldier.

Among those who turned out Wednesday for a funeral in St. Joseph and burial at the National Cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas, was his nephew, Jerry Coon. He said it “brought closure for the whole family” and added that he felt “a sense of peace just having Freddie back home.”