| BOWLING GREEN, Ky._The family of a Kentucky native killed in the Korean War have buried his remains,
which were brought back to the United States after more than 50 years. The family buried the remains of
Henry Mathus, who was last seen when he was a 19-year-old Army corporal in North Korea in 1950, next to his
mother Monday at Fairview Cemetery. The family said she had wondered about her son's disappearance until her
death in 1987.
"It's just too bad this couldn't have happened while she was alive, because this was something that
(wore) on her to the very end," said Henry Mathus' brother, Robert.
Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1298 and the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne, Air Assault
Division, participated in the burial.
Robert Mathus said he was impressed by the military ceremony. "They treated him just as though he
had been killed in action yesterday," Mathus said.
Robert Mathus first heard that his brother's remains may have been found when he got a call from the
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command two-and-a-half years ago. About a year later, they took blood samples from
Robert and another relative, compared DNA and concluded that the remains were Henry's.
The Mathus family moved to Michigan from Bowling Green in 1943, but Robert Mathus purchased four burial
plots in Bowling Green for his mother, his father, Samuel, his older brother, Harley, who died in 1968, and
a memorial plot for Henry.
"I intended for it to be a memorial, but it turns out we're using it - imagine that," Mathus said.
Sincerely,
Jay Veith
Phone: 302-832-7535
Cell: 302-312-6886
Fax: 866-490-2752
jay.veith@thomson.com
|
