Photo By Scott Sturkol | Maj. Randy Downs with the U.S. Army Funeral Honors Team from U.S. Army Garrison-Fort...... read more read more
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Pfc. Charles Dickman was only 17 years old when he died fighting in the Korean War on July 12, 1950, as a heavy weapons infantryman with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. But he never made it home.
“He was reported missing in action on July 12, 1950, near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea, as his regiment engaged in a series of delaying actions to buy time for reinforcements and resupply as they withdrew from the area to avoid being surrounded by North Korean forces,” a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, news release states. “He was not seen to fall in battle, and he was not reported to be a prisoner of war. After regaining control of Chochiwon in the fall of 1950, the Army began recovering remains from the area and temporarily interring them at the United Nations Military Cemetery (UNMC) Taejon.
“However, Pfc. Dickman’s remains were not identified among those recovered from the area, and in 1953, the Department of the Army issued him a presumptive finding of death. The unidentified remains from UNMC were sent to Hawaii where they were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, as Korean War Unknowns,” the release states.
“In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a seven-phase plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl,” the release further states. “As part of the second phase of this Korean War Disinterment Project, one set of unidentified remains was sent to the DPAA laboratory for further study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of Pfc. Dickman.”
On June 20, 2023, the DPAA announced they had identified the remains Pfc. Dickman officially. And on Oct. 21, 2023, finally, Pfc. Dickman made it home to Cashton, Wis.
A funeral mass was set up Oct. 21 in Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Cashton with hundreds of people in attendance. And just down the road, setting up for the graveside service for Dickman at Sacred Heart Cemetery was a team of Soldiers from Fort McCoy who would form a U.S. Army Funeral Honors Team to fold the U.S. flag.
This team included Maj. Randy Downs, company commander of U.S. Army Garrison-Fort McCoy Headquarters and Headquarters Company; Maj. Michael Ball, Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for Fort McCoy; 1st Sgt. Jacob Pattison, first sergeant for U.S. Army Garrison-Fort McCoy Headquarters and Headquarters Company; and Sgt. 1st Class Jason Henderson and Staff Sgt. Nathan Miller, also both with U.S. Army Garrison-Fort McCoy Headquarters and Headquarters Company.
During the funeral mass, Father Michael Klos of Sacred Heart spoke to those who gathered, noting that the Soldier who was missing from his community for so long was “having come home at long last … after 73 years.”
Most of Dickman’s immediate family are now deceased, including his parents and many of his siblings. However, a surviving family member, a sister — Patricia Filut — was there with many nieces and nephews of Dickman to remember him. Klos mentioned that all of the family would be glad to know this day had come where Charles had returned home.
“It is a good and beautiful thing for us to be gathered here today,” Klos said. “To all (who) would be in this a wonderful moment for the family to have closure. They would remember him so well.”
In the funeral mass, the Soldier was honored in a way that was likely long past the time it should have been as the priest had noted, but community and family members were abundant in doing their best to honor Dickman on his homecoming.
After the mass was completed, the entire group of people who was in the church made their way to the cemetery. This included numerous members of Cashton’s Dickman-Spaeth Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #8584. That’s right. The post is named in part after Pfc. Dickman.
At the cemetery, people filed in after parking along the road. The cemetery is less than a mile down a county highway from the church, and people had to park mostly along the highway. The procession was long and led by bikers associated with the VFW post.
The service at the cemetery didn’t take a long time but was likely the most moving. There, Klos spoke more about Dickman as the entire crowd of people closely circled the grave site. Nearby stood veterans at attention with U.S. flags blowing in the cold breeze.
Also nearby was the U.S. Army Funeral Honors Team from Fort McCoy. Downs was standing slightly away from them.
Once Klos completed speaking, buglers played taps in honor of Dickman. Following that, the U.S. Army Funeral Honors Team walked to the casket and began to take off the U.S. flag and fold it.
As they silently and slowly folded the flag, the entire crowd was silent, and the only thing heard was the wind blowing.
Once the flag was completely folded, Downs, as the team commander, brought the flag to Dickman’s sister Patricia and presented it to her. Soon after, the service was over.
Downs said participating in the event was an honor for the whole team.
“Speaking on behalf of our team, please know it was truly an honor to support a fellow brother in arms, Pfc. Charles Dickman’s homecoming and transition to his final resting place on this great nation’s soil,” Downs said.
“It gives our team peace and joy knowing his sister received closure at 93 years old, and he received the honor he deserves,” Downs said. “It serves as a reminder to remember and appreciate those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the values we hold dear. His story is one I will remember and share for the rest of my life.”
Besides being remembered with his namesake on the VFW post in Cashton, DPAA also stated that Pfc. Dickman is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The news release about his remains being found also stated, “His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.”
In addition to his funeral on Oct. 21, throughout the state of Wisconsin, flags of the United States and the state of Wisconsin were flown at half-staff in honor of Dickman by order of the state’s governor.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 11.02.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.02.2023 15:23 |
| Story ID: | 457075 |
| Location: | CASHTON, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 870 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Home after 73 years: Fort McCoy Soldiers pay honors to Korean War hero in local community, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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