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Remains of Korean War vet finally returns home

7 years 11 months 1 week ago Friday, April 15 2016 Apr 15, 2016 April 15, 2016 6:43 PM April 15, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ
By: Earl Phelps

BATON ROUGE - Sergeant Private First Class Darryl Harley is a special military escort officer for soldiers killed in the line of duty.

He's delivering a military flag box and several medals to 80-year-old Cliff Evans of Baton Rouge. Evans' brother died while serving in the Korean War.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I did not think they would ever find him. I had given up," Evan said.

Corporal Dudley Evans was killed 1951. He was captured by Chinese soldiers in North Korea and died while being taken to a POW camp.

"He fell and couldn't get up fast enough for those Chinese guards, and that's when they killed him," Evans said.

Evans' body was left on the side of the road. The ground was frozen and too hard to dig a grave. His partial remains were discovered in 2006 where he died, and he was positively identified last year. It was the Army's mission to let his family finally get closure.

"You do not want him ending his life not knowing where his brother was, where his family member was," Harley said. "You help to close that chapter in his life."

Even though Cpl. Evans was in Korea for less than two months, he earned a number of medals, including the Purple Heart.

He qualified for burial in Arlington, but his brother chose to take the soldier back to his hometown of Greenville, Mississippi.

"I think he'll rest comfortably in his hometown with his momma and daddy and his grandparents right there beside him," Evans said. "Those are the people that loved him most."

Cpl. Evans' remains are still in Hawaii and will be flown back to Mississippi for burial. Services will be held on Apr. 23.

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