LIVERPOOL -- After waiting decades, a Central New York family will finally bury the remains of its fallen soldier.
U.S. Army Corporal Frank Smith was just 23 years old when he left for the Korean War back in 1951. And he was just months into his tour of duty when he died at the hands of a Chinese grenade in July of that year. His sister, Marion Chester, vividly remembers the day she found out her baby brother was killed.
"I remember standing outside crying," she said sitting in her Liverpool home, "The neighbor across the street asked me what's the matter and I said I just got word my brother was killed. It was just terrible."
For decades, Marion has wondered if she'd ever know where her brother was. But last month, military officials came knocking on her door to tell her the news she's waited more than a half century to hear--they had identified the remains of Frank.
"It was wonderful (to hear the news)," she said, "It closes our minds of that unawareness of where he would be or what might have happened to him--so now we know."
Marion remembers her brother as a kind and loving young man who went out of his way to help people, especially their mother. Fitting, she says, that he'll be buried next to their mother at North Syracuse Cemetery on Thursday morning.
