The remains of U.S. Army Cpl. Jules Hauterman Jr. were brought home to a flag-waving crowd in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 67 years after the 19-year-old died in North Korea.
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A related story was published at 8:28 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29, 2017: Effort to return remains of Korean War soldier Jules Hauterman to Holyoke an 'honor': workers
HOLYOKE -- The U.S. Army honor guard stepped away for a moment from the casket. It sat on an open-seated vehicle called a belt loader on the sun-splashed and windy tarmac at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The pause just after noon on Wednesday was to let two relatives approach the casket. Two old men walked slowly and put hands on the American flag banded to the familar-shaped box. The belt loader is used on tarmacs to haul cargo from the bellies of planes. On this day, it carried the remains of Cpl. Jules Hauterman Jr.
Headed home to Holyoke for the first time in 67 years.
"This is bringing one of our own back home. He's our brother," said Brian Willette, of South Hadley, commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Western Massachusetts Chapter 875.
Hauterman died at 19 in the Korean War. Not since being listed as missing in action Dec. 2, 1950 in North Korea have his whereabouts been known.
A recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said testing had identified remains as Hauterman's.
No longer just 'X-15904,' remains of Army Cpl. Jules Hauterman Jr. coming home to Holyoke
He grew up here in a third-floor apartment at St. Jerome Avenue and Monroe Street, near the St. Jerome's Cemetery where he will be buried Friday morning. He liked baseball and ice-skating and had a few girlfriends. After he graduated from Holyoke High School he enlisted in the Army and became a medic.
Hauterman's final mission was at the Chosin Reservoir. He was with the Medical Platoon, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. His unit was attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team as one of its infantry battalions for the mission.
They were overwhelmed when hundreds of thousands of Communist Chinese troops attacked. Fighting lasted three days and four nights in late 1950. More than 1,300 American troops were captured or killed.
It's a battle whose mention, Chosin Reservoir, still leaves veterans awed.
"It was a human slaughterhouse," said Fred Borowiec, 88, a U.S. Marine who fought there.
"It was cold" was all that James P. McInerney, also 88 and also a U.S. Marine said about the Chosin Reservoir.
McInerney was a prisoner of war for three years in North Korea. He and Borowiec, both of Chicopee, wore light-blue windbreakers with patches identifying their service and walked with canes milling on the tarmac.
The contingent to bring home Hauterman numbered about three dozen. There were veterans service agents, representatives of Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts, members of the Holyoke Police Department and Hampden County Sheriff's Department, Francisco A. Urena, secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services, and six Patriot Guard motorcycle riders.
The motorcade of a dozen vehicles that included a hearse, rented SUV's and motorcyclists left Barry Farrell Funeral Home at 10:33 a.m. headed to Interstate 391 South.
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Ludlow Veterans Services Director Eric Segundo drove one of the rented SUVs. It carried George D. Murray, of Ludlow, of the National Council of Administration of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Chris Lizotte, West Springfield veterans services director, James Mahoney, Holyoke veterans services director, Christine Bassett, of Ludlow, VFW District 7 commander, Paul E. Seifert, investigator with the Springfield Veterans Services Department, Gamalier Rosa of the VFW in Amherst, and a Republican reporter.
The veterans officials joked about Segundo's driving and the challenge of keeping such a long motorcade in formation on the highway. The motorcade pulled off Interstate 91 South in Connecticut at Exit 40 at 11:04 a.m., the blue, airport-related highway signs coming into view.
First stop was a gravel parking lot at the Connecticut State Police barracks on the grounds of the airport for security checks of the vehicles.
"The room's available already, so they're just going to bring the casket up the stairs into the viewing room," said Barry Farrell, standing at his funeral home's hearse, explaining the process once the motorcade returns to Holyoke.
Lots of mostly joking among the elderly veterans took place about being thankful as the Connecticut troopers made their restrooms available.
David Stuntz of South Hadley was one of the two relatives of Hauterman in the motorcade. His mother, Cecile Stuntz, 94, of South Hadley, and Hauterman were first cousins.
"She would have been here, but she doesn't get out much," said Stuntz, 70.
The other relative in the motorcade was Robert Whelihan, 76, of South Hadley. He was 9 when he last saw Hauterman, his cousin. They lived in apartments across the hall from each other.
Back into the vehicles for the short ride from the state police barracks to the tarmac.
"So I'm telling all the television and news people, Eric, to meet us at the funeral home because they want to do interviews and stuff," Mahoney said.
"OK," Segundo said.
Lizotte said he hoped Borowiec and McInerney were in vehicles that were allowed onto the tarmac (they were).
"I would have easily sacrificed my seat to let a Korean War veteran in here. I don't need to be here. They do," Lizotte said.
"It is a special day for the family. It is a homecoming," Urena said.
Urena was in the U.S. Marine Corps. and was awarded a Purple Heart after being injured in a tank battle in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Work identifying the remains of service men and women is a painstaking process that takes place at a testing facility in Hawaii. Sometimes it involves only fragments of a femur or other bones, he said.
"One or two remains get identified every month," Urena said.
Delta Flight 1696 arrived early. The plane carrying the remains of Hauterman taxied over to the uniformed and suit-wearing lines of men and women just after noon. Borowiec, McInerney and others held salutes. Others watched with hands over their hearts.
The nine-member honor guard wearing Class A uniforms from Hanscom Air Force Base in Lexington, Massachusetts marched across the tarmac and flanked the belt loader as airport workers in orange-reflector tops pulled the casket from an open hatchway in the plane. It was slow coming out and a worker climbed in. The bright red and white stripes of the cotton American flag, 9.5 feet by 5 feet, that was secured over the casket came into view.
Then the casket fully appeared moving slowly on the conveyor belt of the vehicle, the field of blue bearing embroidered white stars, facing bystanders. The honor guard leader shouted orders and unit members held salutes as the casket moved on the belt to stop between them, three on each side and one facing.
The honor guard members stepped back and Whelihan and Stuntz were allowed a moment at the casket. Whelihan saluted, put both hands on the casket and bowed his head. He and Stuntz moved away and the honor guard lifted the casket and placed it in the back of the hearse.
The ceremony on the tarmac lasted 12 minutes, 44 seconds.
The motorcade headed north and reached I-391 at High Street at 1:07 p.m.
"We brought the corporal home," Holyoke Police Capt. Matthew F. Moriarty said over the radio.
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Later Moriarty explained why the day was special.
"I'm a veteran, my brother's a veteran, my Dad was a veteran. You get to help a family bring a kid back. A 19-year-old kid joins the army, fights in the Korean War and he's been missing for 67 years.
"How often does this happen, that you can participate in an event to help bring him home? It's something that we should do," Moriarty said.
Segundo and the other drivers in the motorcade slowed entering the city. A giant American flag was hoisted by cranes. Men and women, many in uniform, saluted on the sidewalks of South Street. Children waved flags. Many people stood with hands over their hearts.
"Good turnout," Seifert said.
A man with a black dog in front of Advance Auto Parts saluted and held a flag. The crowd got bigger the closer the motorcade got to the funeral home.
"That's really cool," Lizotte said, then noticed Holyoke Police Chief James M. Neiswanger standing beside a parked cruiser at South and Northampton streets.
"He's an excellent chief," Lizotte said.
"This is the way it should always be," Seifert said.
Bassett noted the children lined up with flags on the sidewalk near the funeral home.
"It's awesome. Hopefully, the kids will go back and ask their teachers and they'll explain," she said.
Later, after the honor guard had carried the casket into the funeral home, Boroweic asked a favor.
"Don't let the people forget the Korean War," he said.
