Home for the Holidays
East Boston 1st Cav sgt, reported missing in Korea Thanksgiving week, 1950, home now:
Fifty-seven years after he went missing during the Korean War, forensic experts have identified the remains of a 33-year-old East Boston soldier.
The Army has notified relatives of Sgt. Agostino Di Rienzo that his remains were among those of at least three people recovered from a mass grave south of Unsan, North Korea.
The remains were found in 2002 by a joint U.S.-North Korean team, but only recently identified through DNA testing, dental records and a small Holy Name Society medal found with the remains, according to a report by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Committee. The medal bears the words “St. Christopher, be my guide” and is identical to one Di Rienzo’s mother had given him before he left home, said his nephew, Richard Faiella.
“So many years gone by . . .,” Faiella said yesterday. “We never thought he’d be found.”
A World War II veteran, Di Rienzo re-enlisted during the Korean War and was assigned to the Army’s 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, positioned along the Nammyon River, when the regiment was attacked and cut off by Chinese Communist forces on Nov. 1, 1950, less than a year after he was deployed to North Korea.
He was one of more than 350 servicemen who were unaccounted for after the battle near Unsan, in an area known as “Camel’s Head.”
While he was missing in action, Di Rienzo was promoted to sergeant. A military review board later amended his status to ”presumed killed in action.” And for his leadership and valor, he was awarded the bronze star and the purple heart, which lay in a wooden box on the kitchen table yesterday in Faiella’s East Boston home.
Faiella was 12 when the family received a telegram Thanksgiving week, notifying them that his uncle was missing in action.
“It was hard for my grandmother to understand,” he said. “She never recovered from it.”
Shortly after the Army told the family his remains had been found, Faiella broke the news to a childhood friend of his uncle’s.
“He started crying,” Faiella said. “He said, ‘He’s home.’ ”
Topics: military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:18 am Comments (5) on Thursday, November 22, 2007
5 Responses to “Home for the Holidays”
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November 22nd, 2007 at 11:39 am
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m thankful to be blessed to live in such a rich and wonderful country. I’m thankful for the gift of God’s bounty in America, in my freedom to succeed to the best of my ability, and to raise a family free from fear or want.
I’m especially thankful for all Americans who work to make the lives of other people better, for example our teachers and firefighters.
I’m especially thankful for our military service personnel who have put themselves in harm’s way to defend our interests and spread the cause of freedom to those nations less fortunate than ours.
Here’s to wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
[...] 22, 2007 by Michael van der Galiën Jules Crittenden reports that an American soldier – Sgt. Agostino Di Rienzo – has returned home… after 57 years. He [...]
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 am
How sad.
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Welcome home, soldier.
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:21 pm
I’m touched and grateful that even after all these years it still mattered to both the military and our government.
This brings to my mind two things, first is the enormity of the intelligence failure on the U.S. Commands’ (or should I say U.N. Command) part in failing to detect 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) within their midst and the intel failures leading up to the Iraq war concerning WMD’s.
Second, I think to myself, “Beware of China.”