ROCHESTER — Staff Sgt. Harold Kuhn and Cpl. William Sadewasser didn’t live enough years to start families of their own, and have been gone for so long that their parents and siblings have all since joined them in death.
Yet when the remains of the two young men, both killed in wars fought overseas and more than six decades ago, arrived Thursday morning at the Greater Rochester International Airport, they were received by a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, as well as U.S. military personnel and Patriot Guard Riders.
Kuhn was born in Bradford, Pa., and raised in Friendship, Allegany County; Sadewasser was born in Wellsville but grew up on his grandparents’ farm in Ulysses, Potter County, Pa.
“Very sad his brother and his sister and parents are all deceased,” said Sadewasser’s nephew, Matthew Green, as he and other family members waited just outside the tarmac, “but we’re going to close it up.”
After decades in foreign countries and military identification laboratories, the remains of Kuhn, who died at the age of 21 in World War II, and Sadewasser, who died at the age of 24 in the Korean War, were finally returned to their respective families and given a motorcycle escort to funeral homes Thursday. The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recently identified the men’s remains through a combination of DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence — just two of approximately 100 service members that it identifies every year.
Thursday proved to be an emotional day for both families, with several relatives throwing out words like “overwhelming” and “closure.”
“I think it’s a great ending to this story,” said Ruth Thompson of Bolivar, who sat her in wheelchair outside the tarmac and clutched a framed photograph of her uncle, Kuhn, in his U.S. Army Air Forces uniform and dated May 1, 1941.
Thompson is Kuhn’s only living relative to remember him. To her, he was “Uncle Barney,” and she can remember him playing with her and other young family members. She was 7 when Kuhn died in a plane crash on the morning of Aug. 31, 1943, in modern-day Papua, New Guinea.
Kuhn was part of the 403rd Bomb Squadron Air Corps. He and 11 others were killed instantly after their B-24 bomber crashed into a hill soon after takeoff for an early-morning reconnaissance and pamphlet-dropping expedition.
Thompson can still remember her mother opening the letter that notified her of her brother’s death. Her mother cried out and ran into the house. Her father told Thompson and her brothers to play outside and that their mother needed time alone.
“My mother took it horribly. She was so upset and it lasted quite awhile,” she said. “My grandmother (Kuhn’s mother) … took it in stride, but I know she grieved because I remember what her eyes looked like. I knew how she was feeling just by looking at her.”
A recovery team discovered three sets of human remains two days after the crash, but could not recover them due to the discovery of unexploded ordnance among the wreckage. They instead buried them at the crash site. Additional remains of crew members were recovered several times throughout the next few decades.
“They couldn’t recover the bodies then because the terrain was so terrible, and there were bombs still on the plane,” Thompson said. “They kept going back and trying to find the remains.”
Thompson said she first received a letter and DNA kit from the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency about eight years ago. However, she was later told she was not a match for any of the remains recovered.
A few months ago she received another letter about more bones that were found near the crash site, and her DNA ended up being a match.
“It’s been a long process,” she said.
Green never knew his uncle. Green’s father would often tell him stories of his brother William, logging and fishing. Green said his uncle also served in World War II, returned home and then enlisted again for the Korean War a few years later.
“To get through World War II and then to want to go back in and fight for your country again, that’s really amazing,” he said. “He wrote some letters home that he couldn’t wait to get home and wanted to work on cars and get back into farming, but he stepped up when he needed to, and that’s a hero.”
Sadewasser was a member of Headquarters Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. He was one of approximately 2,500 U.S. and 700 South Korean soldiers deployed east of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea and engaged by overwhelming numbers of Chinese forces in November 1950. The U.S. Army declared Sadewasser dead after he could not be accounted for at the end of the battle and a returning American prisoner of war reported that Sadewasser had died on Nov. 28.
After the war, administrative details between the United Nations Command and North Korea complicated efforts to recover American remains still north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. An agreement in 1954, known as Operation Glory, allowed American remains to be returned, but Sadewasser’s remains were not found.
In 2004, teams recovered possible human remains of at least 11 people on the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir. Sadewasser was eventually identified after mitochondrial DNA matched with his family.
“We were very excited and surprised when we received the notice,” Green said.
Both families were escorted onto the tarmac Thursday to watch as the remains of their loved ones were removed from the plane and placed into hearses. About 30 Patriot Guard Riders stood with American flags as the vehicles exited the tarmac, and eventually followed them on their bikes.
Nigel Heaton, assistant state captain for Patriot Guard Riders regions 1,2, and 3, said it was an honor for he and other volunteers to escort Kuhn and Sadewasser.
“It’s about paying our respects for people who signed that piece of paper that says, ‘up to and including my life,’ and a lot of these guys have paid the ultimate price,” he said. “This is a real honor to show the family that those that have been killed will not be forgotten.”
Most of the riders’ requests are for veterans that survived war and died after living full lives. Those killed in action are “few and far between,” but still happen, Heaton said. He called escorting two veterans that died so long ago “bittersweet.”
“It’s not joyous and it’s not happy, but it’s closure,” he said.
Both men will be laid to rest Saturday with full military honors. Sadewasser will be buried in Ulysses, while Kuhn will be buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Friendship, where his parents and several other immediate family members rest.
“I’m so happy — I guess you could say — that I could be part of her bringing one of (my grandmother’s) children back to her,” Thompson said.
Additionally, Kuhn’s family received several awards on his behalf, including the Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal and World War II Victory Medal.
Both families noted their appreciation for the military’s effort in recovering and locating their loves ones.
“It really took our breath away that they were still out there looking for our guys,” Green said. “We’re very proud the way the country followed up on their promise to bring our boys home. We’re very honored.”
