Coming home: Fallen Korean War POW returns to Ithaca Matthew Hayes, mhayes@ithacajournal | @IJmhayes 6 p.m. EST November 20, 2014 The remains of Army Sgt. Michael James Barra return home to Ithaca, where he grew up as an athletic boy on Ithacas Northside. Story Highlights • Michael Barra grew up in 1940s on Northside, playing sports with neighborhood boys at Conway Park • Returning prisoners told military and Barras family that disease claimed his life • POW/MIA Accounting Command and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory identified Barras remains • Sgt. Bara will be buried Saturday in Ithaca, following a Mass at Immaculate Conception Church ITHACA – At Ithacas Conway Park in the 1940s Michael James Barra turned the triangular spit of grass into his own sporting ground, muscling around with the other neighborhood boys in football and baseball games that could last for hours. Back then the Northside neighborhood predominated with working class Italian and immigrant families. Following their games at Conway Park, Michael and his friends retreated from the sun for ice cream and sodas at Geigers Corner Grocery, just regular boys in the summer of their youth. More than 65 years after Michael Barra left Ithaca to join the army, the remains of the soldier who died at 18-years old in Korea returned to Tompkins County on Thursday, passing blocks away from those childhood haunts. The remains, kept in an urn and covered by a royal blue fabric, left Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday evening accompanied by Staff Sgt. Sean Bucklew bound for connecting flights in Los Angeles and Detroit. The final flight landed at Tompkins County Airport as dusk settled on Thursday. A New York State Honor Guard team of six soldiers in full dress uniform retrieved the remains from Sgt. Bucklew on the tarmac. The team saluted, passed the flag and urn down the assembled team, and readied it for transport. A Tompkins County Sheriffs vehicle led the procession from the airport, where Ithaca Police Department vehicles met the group at the city line for the final leg to Bangs Funeral Home on Green Street. Staff Sgt. Erwin Dominguez, who led the guard, called it an honor to be so near to history. A soldier is a soldier, whether its 63 years ago or now. The honors are the same and its our job to make it the most dignified and professional way to bring the remains back, he said. For an honor guard that provides military services for upward of 900 funerals a year, this one felt particularly meaningful. It makes me feel amazing, actually, to be a part of something like this, he said after transferring the remains to the funeral home. Theres no more honorable duty than this. Michael Barra grew up at a time when the older boys were plucked from all over Tompkins County to feed the WWII fighting forces. The youngest of six children, his father died when Michael was 2-years-old, leaving the family in the capable hands of their mother, Lena. The outgoing, intelligent boy joined the Boy Scouts, served in student council at Ithaca High School, and took part in drama club. The extracurricular activities fit in line with a boy described as having a friendly, kind-hearted nature. After graduating from Ithaca High School in 1949, Michael enlisted in the Army, a year before the outbreak of the Korean War. By November 1950, as battles waged for control over the Korean peninsula, U.S. forces pushed forward under an offensive from General Douglas MacArthur meant to decimate enemy lines. The push came during one of the coldest Korean winters of the century, with regular subzero temperatures huddling the troops in a withering cold. Michael Barra, in Company C, 2nd Engineer Battalion, fought as part of the 2nd Infantry Division. That division suffered the hardest of all American troops in the war, with more than 7,000 soldiers killed. U.S. Army Sgt. Michael James Barra. (Photo: Bangs Funeral Home / Photo Provided) In freezing temperatures Barra and his unit deployed north and northeast of Kunu-ri, North Korea, when their defensive line was attacked by Chinese forces, according to the Department of Defense. In order to withdraw to a more defensible position, the unit fought through a series of Chinese roadblocks, known in military lore as The Gauntlet. There, in a congested valley road, retreating troops fell under fire from Chinese forces posted on higher ground. The American columns fought back against the barrage of rifle and machine-gun fire from roadblocks set all along the nearly 20-mile escape route. During the battle Chinese forces captured Barra and sent him to the prisoner camp known as Camp 5, in Pyokdong, North Korea. There Barra and other soldiers suffered under cold and dirty conditions. It was a perilous time for the prisoners: some estimates figures as much as 43 percent died from starvation and disease while held captive. When the armistice came in 1953, returning prisoner of wars told the military and Barras family that disease claimed the 18-year old. He died Feb. 20, 1951 of dysentery. The grief was overwhelming for everyone in the family, recalled Sue Shanahan, Sgt. Barras last surviving sibling. Barra was promoted posthumously from corporal to sergeant in July 1953. For decades, the remains of Sgt. Barra and thousands of other American soldiers remained lost in North Korea. It wasnt until the early 1990s that the reclusive North Korea government turned over to the defense department 208 boxes of human remains believed to contain more than 400 U.S. servicemen who fought during the war. Using genetic material donated by Sgt. Barras brother and sister, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory pieced together evidence and used forensic identification tools to determine Sgt. Barras identity. The remains matched the mitochondrial DNA of his sister, and Y-STR DNA, which matched his brother. His remains are scheduled to arrive at Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport around 5 p.m. Thursday. Shanahan described herself as shocked when she received the phone call from the military about the news. After 64 years you think, well... Shanahan said, trailing off. But it opened a door for me. It took me back 64 years and you have those emotions all over again. Along with the sadness, she said she also experienced moments of joy at his return. I dont know if its possible, but I was happy at the same time knowing that he would be here with us, she said. She expressed hope that the return of her brother would provide some solace to other families with their own relatives lost on far-flung battlefields. With full military honors, Sgt. Barra will be buried alongside his parents at the Calvary Cemetery. The public burial ceremony on Saturday follows a public Mass at 10 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Church in Ithaca to be celebrated by Rev. Jeffrey Tunnicliff of Immaculate Conception and Rev. Joseph Marcoux of St.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:00:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015