JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man who fought and died in the Korean War was declared missing in action. Now, 73 years later, his remains have returned to his daughter.
Last year, his remains were identified with help from advanced technology, as those of Army Master Sergeant Roy Edward Barrow of Mississippi.
Wednesday, 73 years after he was determined to be MIA, Barrow's remains were flown into the Jacksonville airport, welcomed with a water cannon salute.
His daughter, Gloria Barrow Johnson, and other family members were waiting for him on the tarmac.
Johnson was 11 months old when he left for combat, and she doesn’t remember him.
“When they called me and told me my dad had been identified, I screamed for ten minutes in the poor fella’s ears," Johnson recalled. "And then I apologized to him, and he said, ‘No, you made my day.’ And I said, ‘No, you made mine.' After 73 years, I didn’t think this was going to happen.”
When the flag-draped casket came out of the American Airlines plane, Johnson touched it and cried. It was a reunion between a father and his daughter.
“This is probably the happiest day of my life and the saddest," she paused. "A little bit of both. I was surprised at the amount of grief. I thought after 73 years, I thought I would be used to him being gone."
Johnson explained that in 1954, a project called Operation Glory found various remains of unidentified military men and sent them to Hawaii.
More recently, it took six attempts to extract DNA from the remains, and the sixth try worked, she said.
Master Sergeant Barrow could be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, however, his daughter chose to bury him in Valdosta, Georgia where she lives. His wife is also buried there.
Master Sergeant Barrow will be laid to rest on Saturday.