Familys closure

Korean War soldier laid to rest

By Hayli Morrison, hmorrison@bgdailynews.com — 270-783-3240

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

With the presentation Monday of an American flag folded into a triangular box decorated with the Purple Heart, National Defense Service Medal and other military honors, the Mathus family finally gained some closure.

Henry D. Mathus, a 19-year-old U.S. Army corporal who fought in the Korean War, was last seen in the North Korean village of Usan on Nov. 1, 1950 the day the Bowling Green native and Monroe, Mich., resident was scheduled to return home.

Years of Christmases, Thanksgivings and birthdays passed with one less person around the Mathus family table and endless questions as to the young soldiers whereabouts and welfare.

Initially listed as missing in action, Mathus was officially declared dead on Dec. 31, 1953.

In 1997, North Korean peasants reported to national authorities the location where they had buried the body of an American soldier decades earlier. U.S. military officials with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command soon recovered the body and began extensive forensic testing.

In January, after waiting nearly a year for results from a blood test to help identify the body, 67-year-old Robert Mathus received the news he had hoped for. His brothers remains were coming home.

The thing that impressed me about this whole thing is they dont give up, Robert Mathus said. It was quite a thing going into North Korea.

With burial in Fairview Cemetery on Monday, Henry Mathus remains came to rest next to the grave of his mother, Ozetta Mathus, who wondered about her sons disappearance until her death in 1987.

Its just too bad this couldnt have happened while she was alive because this was something that (wore) on her to the very end, Robert Mathus said, adding that he was very impressed with the funeral honors bestowed on his brother by members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1298 and the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne, Air Assault Division.

They treated him just as though he had been killed in action yesterday, he said.

The Mathus family has resided in Michigan for many years, but it was in their native Bowling Green where Robert Mathus decided to purchase four burial plots 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 were using it imagine that, Robert Mathus said.

Mathus cousin, retired Senior Master Sgt. Jesse Mathews of the U.S. Air Force, came from Ladson, S.C., to attend the long-awaited homecoming of his childhood playmate.

Hunting and fishing and playing in the barn thats about all we had to do back then, said Mathews, 73. (Henry) was a real aggressive type fellow. You had to whip him to get his attention. Knowing him when he was young, I can see why they didnt take him prisoner. Im sure he gave them all he had.

Dr. Matthew Wysocki, a U.S. Army Chaplain with the 101st Airborne, presided over Mathus funeral and credited him for paying the ultimate price for the freedom and liberty of a people oppressed so far away.

We can only imagine the trials and difficulties of not knowing of hoping, but never having complete closure, Wysocki said. His life, while cut short by war, was most certainly outlived by the peace it produced and the Korean people thank him.

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