Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CLEARFIELD -- It's taken 60 years, but a Clearfield soldier who fought and died in the Korean War is finally coming home.
Lt. Jack J. Saunders was scheduled to come home in March or April of 1951. On Feb. 13, his unit was overrun by Chinese forces near Hoengsong in what is now South Korea. He ended up in a Prisoner of War camp.
His only daughter, Kim Padelsky, said on Friday, "He was captured then, as they were pulling back, retreating, and it was kind of confusing. He was one of the ones captured in the retreat."
Noon
Leavitt's Mortuary & Aultorest Memorial Park
836 36th Street
Ogden, Utah
801-394-5556
www.leavittsmortuary.com
Padelsky doesn't have any memory of him. She was only 3 years old when he was taken prisoner. Ever since, his family has wondered what happened to him. Now, they have the answer.
Last October, Padelsky received a phone call. The remains of her father had been positively identified, some 60 years after he died in the Korean War.
Padelsky is just happy her mother, LaRelle Rich Saunders, was alive in October to hear her husband was coming home to Clearfield.
"She was very surprised and stunned. We were all stunned. She was just like, ‘I can't believe it. It's been 60 years.' She was very happy. I think that's when she was really done here," Padelsky said.
LaRelle, who had remarried several times, died the very next month. Saturday, Saunders will be buried next to her. They'll be together again after all this time apart.
"She was the love of his life, and I think he was hers as well. It's a big relief," Padelsky said.
At the end of April, Padelsky and a group of her family and supporters went to Hickam Field in Hawaii, where the lab that identified her father's remains is located.
The Department of Defense's POW/Missing Personnel Office, based in Arlington, Va., currently has more than 80,000 case files. The majority of those — 74,000 — come from World War II. There are still 8,000 missing from the Korean War, 1,698 from the Vietnam War, and 125 missing from the Cold War.
Written with contributions from Alex Cabrero and [Carma Wadley](<mailto: carma@desnews.com>).
