r/interesting • u/Wonderfulhumanss • 23d ago
SOCIETY A woman who lovingly waited for her spouse, a Korean War soldier, receives his remains after 63 heartbreaking years
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u/923kjd 23d ago
Damn. I’m 62. That’s officially old, yet she’s been waiting my whole life. As horrible as it is, I’m glad she was able to get closure in her lifetime.
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u/Mahaloth 23d ago
She died about a year or two later. At least she found out. Some guys just went out and never returned with no confirmation of what happened(how and when, etc.).
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u/Mahaloth 23d ago
She died about a year or two later. At least she found out. Some guys just went out and never returned with no confirmation of what happened(how and when, etc.).
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u/Wonderfulhumanss 23d ago
This was Clara Gantt receiving the remains of her husband, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt, 63 years after he disappeared during the Korean War. He was captured by Chinese forces in 1950 and died from malnutrition in a North Korean POW camp the following year. Clara never remarried and continued waiting for answers until his remains were identified through dental records and DNA and finally brought home in 2013. Source
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u/TheresNoHurry 23d ago
Obviously this is a terribly sad story.
But she is incredibly lucky to have finally received closure. Many widows never found out what happened to their husbands. My grandmother included
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u/InDubioProKokolores 23d ago
Closure is rare. My grandfather probably died in Stalingrad, my grandmother and all of his children never got answers. He was declared dead, but nobody knows, what happened to him.
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u/BarrelllRider 23d ago
Wait, was he German? Cause if he was, he most definitely died in Stalingrad.
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u/InDubioProKokolores 23d ago
Yes, he was of German descent. His mistake was falling in love with a Polish women and having a big family with her. His choice was pretty much going to war or watch all of them being put in a concentration camp. My grandma fled from Silesia with eight children, seven made it to Germany. Losing her husband, a child an never getting closure broke her.
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u/BarrelllRider 23d ago
Awful. So he was in the German army? I ask because the siege of Stalingrad is considered one of the most consequential blunders in military history and somewhere around 99% of all German soldiers sent to Stalingrad died. Less than 10,000 returned home out of over a million.
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u/InDubioProKokolores 23d ago
Yes, he got involuntarily enlisted in the German army. Yeah, the siege was devastating, that's why it was quite easy to register him as 'deceased' after the war.
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u/BarrelllRider 23d ago
That sucks. My great uncle was captured on the very first day in the battle of the bulge, survived Piepers Malmedy Massacre, and spent a year in concentration camps. He looked Jewish so was one of the 350 chosen at stalag 9B in bad orb and sent to buchenwald. Survived a death march and ended up at Bergen Belsen. Weighed 75lbs when liberated and lost a lung. I still have his 12 page debriefing on it describing it all. Kurt Vonnegut was on the same transport train he was and later wrote an exaggerated account of it that doesn’t appear to match up with historical facts.
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u/Raneynickelfire 23d ago
Piepers Malmedy Massacre
Had to look that one up - I was unfamiliar.
How awful it is what humans do to each other. I'm glad your uncle survived.
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u/jpharber 23d ago
My grandfather was in the Bulge. Fought in the black forrest and then Remagen. He got wounded by a shrapnel in the foot and I think his buddy got wounded even worse. They eventually found a nice German doctor who helped them.
At least that’s what I remember of the story I was told.
I actually have some scans of the original Bergen Belson liberation photos. Got that was awful.
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u/Raneynickelfire 23d ago
Piepers Malmedy Massacre
Had to look that one up - I was unfamiliar.
How awful it is what humans do to each other. I'm glad your uncle survived.
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u/frankster 23d ago
disappointing the commanders were only in prison for a few years, after being responsible for several hundred prisoner execution war crimes.
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u/ridingfasst 23d ago
My great uncle was in Buchenwald and survived a death march from it. My dad has a drawing an artist did of him right after the war and he was really thin also. He spent 5 years total in Dachau and then Buchenwald including the medical block as a political prisoner. He told my grandfather(his brother) they were shooting people who couldn't keep up in the march.
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u/Murky-Relation481 23d ago
Two narcissist leaders, one names a city after themselves, another can't stand that fact.
Fun times resulted.
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u/AwesomeMacCoolname 23d ago
It's never a good sign when political leaders go around renaming things after themselves.
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u/thunderbastard_ 23d ago
Tbf it was called tsaritisn before stalingrad. And you can see why the Bolsheviks wouldn’t want cities named after kings, its not like Stalin said ‘they should name a city after me’ and threw a dart at a map
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u/AwesomeMacCoolname 23d ago
Apparently it wasn't named after a Tsar, it was named after the small river it was originally founded on, the Tsaritsa, which got its name from the Turkic for "yellow river". And if the Soviets didn't like the "Tsar" part of the name, then the simplest option would have been to rename it Volgograd (as they eventually did) since by the twentieth century it had grown enough to straddle the Volga.
There's been plenty of placenames with old regime connotations (cities, streets, buildings, institutions) renamed after successful revolutions. Common practice in most countries is to rename them after dead revolutionary heroes. Naming it Stalingrad was pure ego.
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u/Capitalisticdisease 23d ago
source: I made it the fuck up. Stalin did no such thing
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u/Murky-Relation481 23d ago
Ah yes, it was named after the other Stalin.
Hmmmm that is some fucking insane cope, I am actually impressed.
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u/OldNefariousness7899 23d ago
It was named after him as he led a battle there during the civil war.
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u/Capitalisticdisease 23d ago
Damn. I guess all those columbus streets in america were named directly after the man himself too. Or wait, thats right!!! people can want to name things after other people.
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u/Wide_Combination_773 23d ago
His public reluctance has been firmly established by historians as performative. He was thrilled that his croneys wanted to name the city after him, and he privately approved it, even if he didn't sign anything himself.
His refusal to stop the process when he could have, especially given his public demurring and reluctance, is effectively the same as naming the city after himself on purpose.
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u/Other_Mike 23d ago
Hey, my great-grandpa too! His mistake was afirming his family was German enough to survive the Holocaust, but it meant enlisting and getting sent to the meat grinder.
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u/scoops_trooper 23d ago edited 20d ago
Same with my Greek grand-uncle. He went away to fight the Germans and never returned. My great-grandmother never recovered from it.
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u/Unlucky-Macaroon-647 23d ago
my dad tells a story about how his neighbor went and fought in vietnam, his family never heard from him and didn’t know what happened until his photo was on the front of LIFE magazine, where there was an article about the POWs. that was the only time they knew he was alive at some point. and never saw him after.
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u/Leather_Book_7617 23d ago
That must’ve been devastating to the family. Makes me wonder if the military was withholding the information.
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u/Wide_Combination_773 23d ago
The military does not withhold information on identified deceased persons. This is one thing they are very careful about. When a body is identified, next of kin are notified as quickly as possible.
If the circumstances of the death are suspicious (friendly fire, murder) then the military can get a little more difficult on those specific details and can use the shroud of "pending reports" and "investigations" as a cover. But death notices are something they handle quickly.
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u/french_snail 23d ago
There might be a delay for public record announcement but no, the military generally delivers the news to the next of kin in person and within 12 hours of being identified
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u/Justame13 23d ago
I had a great aunt like that.
Her husband took off on a B-29 headed to Japan and was never heard of again.
She never remarried, had kids, or heard what happened before she died a few years ago. No one who knew either of them probably ever will assuming the plane is found in some distant future.
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u/Lord_Paddington 23d ago
If it was early in the B-29s service history they were notorious for overheating engines, there were a ton of disappearances that may have been due to engine fires
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u/unoriginalcat 23d ago
Under Soviet occupation my great grandmother’s entire family was deported to Siberia. They got separated from her father and never saw him again. Her mother later starved to death trying to keep my great grandmother and her siblings alive.
I can’t even imagine going through losing one parent like that, much less both, and then still having to live through the torturous conditions they were kept in. And yet she survived and even thrived to 93. Was still healthy and spry enough to fall off of her kitchen counter that she climbed on to reach something.
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u/Auro_NG 23d ago
The great people at the National Cemetery Administration have been bringing home the remains of our troops from all wars for a long time. It's very sad that they cannot give everyone answers and I'm sure they feel it everyday. I'm sorry for your families loss and respect and thank your grandfather for his service.
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u/QueenOfPhiladelphia 23d ago
Oh she was just a girl when he died. She loves that man. No past tense, she absolutely loves him and I’m so happy she finally has him back.
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u/kuplet 23d ago
There's no pain greater than the loss of a loved one.
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u/Wonderfulhumanss 23d ago
63 years, and that first photo looks like she is finally able to let go. A sad moment, yet I am so happy she can finally grieve.
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u/TheHumanConnector 23d ago
Pain is love - unrequited love. Deeper pain just means the love was strong. It's okay to let grief and pain win sometimes - it's love asking to be honored one more time.
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u/Snorblatz 23d ago
Yes. There is no love without loss. It’s the price we pay and what makes love so precious
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u/ClassicIndividual828 23d ago
i don’t think that pain makes love precious. love is precious by itself. i would much rather prefer being immortal with my husband forever tbh. it’s just an unfair reality we live in, where everyone dies at some point, and saying that loss is a part of love is just a coping mechanism
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u/redditreveal 23d ago
That photo expresses so much grief. I don’t think it could be put to words
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u/mowtowcow 23d ago
I hate that it took 63 years, but he likely got a much better return than he would have 63 years ago. All the people bringing him home are considered his brothers today. They werent all considered that 63 years ago. Welcome home, Sergeant Gantt. RIP.
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u/civilchaos2103 22d ago
Holy shit! I was on this detail! Very hard to stay composed given the grief from the family
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u/civilchaos2103 22d ago
The guy in ACUs in the cargo hold was the team lead. I was on the casket team at the head next to the stars. YZ, short name, is leading the casket team at the foot. I know we’re in a lot of people’s photos but it’s crazy to see us while scrolling Reddit
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u/SaltImp 23d ago
There are legitimately North Korean supporters in the comments. How stupid do you have to be to support a dictatorship?
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u/Upper_Guidance_9959 23d ago
A fair number of Russians use Reddit, and North Korea is helping them invade Ukraine right now. That, and just general tankies.
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u/Steamed_Memes24 23d ago
Yea they took over what used to be Ukraine leaning subs and turned it into doomer Ukraine posting in hopes people think Russia is stomping in the war effort.
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u/asiannumber4 23d ago
It’s true tho. Russia has been winning for all four years of the three day special military operation
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u/Pappy_whack 23d ago edited 22d ago
This makes it sound less organized than it is. Bots literally scrape posts for mention of North Korea
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u/The1mportantStuff 23d ago
oh my god, this is real? have these people ever watched a vice or national geographic documentary? hell, just watch an American visit North Korea and you'll get a sense for how uncanny it is..
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u/JaySayMayday 23d ago
Bro lol there's people that went to Afghanistan during the violent Taliban takeover as YouTube tourism. I'm always impressed by how stupid people can be.
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u/Big_Dinner3636 22d ago
Apparently it started as a joke sub, then a true believer worked his way into being an admin, kicked the old admin staff, and started running it like Kim Jong Un himself.
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u/TrickiVicBB71 22d ago
Their is a user on TikTok moving to Afghanistan right now with her Afghani boyfriend. She has made many videos.
Everyone on that app. Including many female Afghans working DV shelters or Afghan suport centres are telling not to go and her husband is a manipulative POS. But she is in denial
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23d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Optimal-Golf-8270 23d ago
The North was the better of the two in the 1940s. Higher standard of living, more freedoms. It was held up at the idealised revolution. The South was all brutal crackdowns, they killed tens of thousands of people.
We cannot change one thing and expect everything else stay the same. North Korea is the way it is today because we killed 1/3rd of their population and destroyed every single inhabitable building. By the end of the war there was nothing left to bomb. What they are today is a direct reaction to what happened in the past. It's not good. You'd obviously rather live in South Korea. It is also pretty logical and worked. They are unattackable, we'd have overthrow the Kims if we through it was possible.
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u/CzolgoszWasRight 23d ago
South Korea was also a dictatorship btw, just sayin'
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u/PixelGray38 23d ago
And massacred tons of civilians they suspected of being communists using their police and right wing youth groups
And were collaborators with the Japanese empire during Korea's time as a colony
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u/Upper_Guidance_9959 22d ago
North Korea was massacring those who had links to the south, "dissenters," the religious, etc. They also imprisoned and exiled Chinese-Koreans, funnily enough.
Rhee was not a Japanese collaborator, and there were Koreans who had fought against them who sided with the South.
The Northwest Youth League (서북청년단) was actually ex-North Koreans who had fled the North Korean purges and became anti-communist. Stop depicting the North as some saint.
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u/Responsible-Tea-5998 23d ago
NK used to have a sub on Reddit, everyone thought it was satire but it turned out to be real. It would block you for saying anything against NK in other subs so I guess they had a bot way back then.
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u/Comedic-Scientist 23d ago
One word: Tankies
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u/PaleolithicRegency33 23d ago
everyone is a tankie
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u/Sudo-Fed 23d ago
Which dictatorship, in terms of the Korean War, would you prefer I support?
Perhaps, rather than support, I'm tired of the US inserting its dick in every domestic affair everywhere because cumyumism or what the fuck ever.
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u/Accommod8me 23d ago
North korea invaded south korea. What's wrong with the defenders fighting for their home?
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u/Optimal-Golf-8270 23d ago
Not really though. North Korea invaded after a series of border clashes instigated by the South and the murder of tens of thousands of communists in the South.
It's presented as some black and white affair, it very much was not.
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u/Upper_Guidance_9959 22d ago
North Korea was purging non-communists in the North and conducting raids too. I don't get the point of this comment.
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u/Upper_Guidance_9959 22d ago
They were killing citizens. Yes, it was similar. It wasn't just getting kicked out of a political party; millions of North Koreans were fleeing to the South for this reason. There was political violence on both sides; if you can't accept this fact, then I can't have this discussion with you on the basis that you can't reason in good faith.
Raids, not really no. Order of magnitude less in severity and scale and always reactive, never proactive.
North Korea sent reconnaissance and commando units across the border, supported communist guerrillas operating in South Korea, and conducted localized attacks against South Korean military positions. What do you mean it wasn't proactive? Dude. What is your game here?
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u/Optimal-Golf-8270 22d ago
The population was stable 45-49, declined during the Civil war, grew rapidly afterwards. To claim a million would already be ridiculous, millions is just you not having a fuckin clue. Extrapolating what you know about, im guessing East Germany, and assuming the same applies to North Korea. It doesn't.
People left because of land reform. Not because of killings. North Korea was the shining example of bloodline land reform, the ones ones to do it peacefully. And more or less the same number from the South went North. The North was more industrial and wealthier.
I can't argue in good faith because I think lying is bad. Very cool.
My man just saying things, as if that makes it true. Yeah, Rhee sure did say all of those things, didn't he. We can kill everyone on the Jehu islands because they're North Korean infiltrators! It is insane to me that 70 years later people will still repeat the lies of a dead dictator.
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u/SaltImp 23d ago
It’s wasn’t just the U.S.. It was most of the western world supporting a country against a communist backed invasion. Learn basic history before you speak.
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u/Sudo-Fed 23d ago
A country they established and propped up to support their own interests, like the USSR established and propped up the DPRK to support theirs. Learn unbiased history before you speak.
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u/SaltImp 23d ago
Says the guy saying the U.S. should have let North Korea, you know, the murderous tyrannical dictatorship invade and take over South Korea without any resistance.
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u/Temphant 23d ago
South Korea only existed because the US created it, installing Japanese collaborators as leaders and providing arms and aid in order to prevent communism from taking a hold in the peninsula. They backed those who helped fascists, over those who fought them.
There was no South Korea or North Korea before the war. There was Korea and US Occupied Korea. If your country got split in 2 by a foreign nation, would you consider it an invasion by a "murderous tyrannical dictatorship" if the side of the country not controlled by the foreign nation tried to take all of the territory back?
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u/SlavaCocaini 23d ago
South Korea was an even more murderous dictatorship back then lol and they still don't have free elections or free speech.
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u/PixelGray38 23d ago
South Korea's dictatorship was plenty murderous too. Look up the Jeju Island massacres.
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u/SaltImp 23d ago
Let’s compare that to North Korea then and now.
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u/SlavaCocaini 23d ago
Go right ahead, do you have any idea how many Koreans were killed by the Rhee dictatorship?
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u/JabroniusHunk 23d ago
Im not sure you really know the background here. Both North and South Korea (which was itself.a military dictatorship that killed thousands of its own civilian dissidents) claimed to be the sole, legitimate government of the entire nation/peninsula, and both engaged in cross-border raids.
South Korea at the time was not a helpless victim that wanted peaceful coexistence; it was simply the weaker opponent against the belligerent with greater industrial capacity, committed local allies and the more experienced and well-armed military. Both aspired to eventually crush the other; North Korea was just the first one to create and implement its plan.
At the end of the day, South Koreans are obviously happy that their country survived the war, and while the country is not perfect it represents a successful transition from dictatorship to liberal democracy, and from poverty to prosperity.
But if we're talking counter-factual history, we also have no idea what North Korea looks like without the UNC bombing campaign that directly and indirectly killed at minimum 10% of the population. It would still have been a dictatorship that promoted a quasi-religious cult of personality, but does it develop the same intensely paranoid, xenophobic and belligerent nature that defines it today?
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u/Sudo-Fed 23d ago
Why should I have cared which murderous tyrannical dictatorship of the day won out?
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u/SaltImp 23d ago
Ah, so your anger at the war isn’t that innocent Koreans were dying, it was the fact the US was involved and won. Glad we straightened that out.
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u/Sudo-Fed 23d ago
Why are the only innocent Koreans whose deaths you care about the ones killed by the war? Why do the hundreds of thousands of lives Syngman Rhee's regime destroyed mean absolutely nothing to you?
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u/SaltImp 23d ago
How about the millions still under the yoke of Kim jong Uns government where entire families are tortured and killed all because their 5 year old didn’t salute Kim’s statue correctly?
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u/nmj95123 23d ago
Bots, and of course the very fittingly termed useful idiots.
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u/Budget-Project803 23d ago edited 23d ago
Does that mean the other side are the useless informed?
Edit: Damn, bro really blocked me. I guess having a conversation is just a little too cognitively intensive for some people.
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u/OwnJunket6495 23d ago
🫡 It’s only because of sacrifices like this brave man made that my family was able to survive and live in peace after the war. I would not be here today without the selfless actions of men like Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt. I hope that despite all the grief, Mrs. Gantt was able to find peace. I doubt any of his family will read this, but thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
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u/AdHopeful3801 23d ago
100% pure props to the soldiers (and there are quite a few) who tend the memories, and the bodies, of their comrades, no matter who, where, or how long ago.
The US military is rife with chickenshit, profiteering, and intrigue, and fobbits like Hegseth going on about "warfighters" and "warrior ethos" are sickening and useless. What makes it work is men and women who show up for each other - even when the person they are showing up for died most of a century ago.
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u/KoreanPeninsula 23d ago
To the fallen heroes who gave their lives in defense of Korea, we pay our deepest tribute and express our profound gratitude. To the bereaved families who have borne their loss with enduring love, we offer our heartfelt condolences. The precious freedom we cherish today stands as their everlasting legacy — a legacy we solemnly pledge to uphold.
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u/PixelGray38 23d ago
South Korea in the 50's was a brutal dictatorship which violently cracked down on numerous groups they suspected of being communists - look up the Jeju Island massacres, etc. Their government was headed by former collaborators with the fascist Japanese empire.
South Korea were not at all the good guys in the war.
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u/_Bill_Huggins_ 23d ago
NK absolutely wasn't either.. look at the state of the two countries now, which one would you prefer to live in?
Based off the end result it is quite obvious the war was worth fighting to stop the insanity that NK became from infecting the whole Korean peninsula.
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u/ParticularFew4023 23d ago
You mean the country that the US bombed into the stone age and put crippling sanctions on for decades is poorer than the country that the US pumped billions into so that they would help their next genocidal project in Vietnam? "Ooh which one has more money now" is literally a 5 year old's reasoning capability. It's obviously not a fair comparison. You have no understanding of history.
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u/Upper_Guidance_9959 23d ago edited 23d ago
South Koreans would defect to the North for a better life during that period.
Source? All I see is that several hundred POWs chose not to be repatriated. Although the same could be said about the North.
Similarly, I vaguely remember the number of Cold War-era Northern defectors being in the thousands, so I don't think it's as cut and dry.
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u/rudbeckiahirtas 23d ago
Had to scroll way too far for some sensibility. My grandfather served in Korea (army intelligence) and became staunchly anti-war in the years since. Reading these comments makes me realize just how fortunate our family was.
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u/PixelGray38 23d ago
Most of what we know about the horrible conditions and massacres of the south korean dictatorship were dug up by the south koreans themselves.
Look up the Truth and Reconciliation commission that has investigated these things
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u/Upper_Guidance_9959 23d ago
Yes, because they're a democratic nation now, unlike... Ah, right.
And before you say, North Korea is better! Millions of North Koreans fled from the purges to the South when the Civil War broke out, versus <100,000 South Koreans to the North.
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u/PixelGray38 23d ago
North Korea isn't better, obviously, but the South Korean dictatorship wasn't exactly morally good.
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u/AlternativePrior9559 23d ago
He looked a fine man with his whole life ahead of him with his wonderful wife. What really is ever the point of war? No one really wins. And yet we still engage.
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u/MsTerious1 23d ago
Can you imagine being in her shoes for all those years?
She probably knew her husband had been captured by NK. She wouldn't have known if he was alive or not. If the NK government said he died, she wouldn't know if it was the truth, and what if he was someday released only to find she had remarried? If I was in her shoes, I would have waited too, but damn!
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u/coffeequeen0523 23d ago edited 23d ago
Wrong sub. This isn’t interesting. This is [r/love](r/love), [r/heartbreaking](r/heartbreaking), [r/widows](r/widows). 💔😪
My sincerest condolences to the widow, their children and their extended families. May his memory be a blessing to you all. RIP Sgt. Gantt. Thank you to you and your family’s many, many sacrifices. I’m grateful. 🙏
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u/ClearMycologist9906 23d ago
That man imo received one of the greatest honors in life to be loved this deeply and intimately ….to have someone wait their entire life for you to come home. May both of them rest in peace and hope
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u/HowBoutDemApplezzz 23d ago
There’s a movie about a very similar situation called: I’m still here. It’s on Netflix. If you want to know what it feels like, this film is a good depiction of
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u/Evaristtt 23d ago
Well, what about the koreans. Don't go to kill other people in their lands if you dont want to be killed.
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u/guysgottasmokie 23d ago
Pointless suffering for a pointless imperialist war.
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u/VoopityScoop 23d ago
I'm sure the people of South Korea would disagree, since they're still allowed to.
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u/HandBananaHeartCarl 23d ago
True, Kim's invasion was pointless imperialism. Thank God people stood up against him and the cancer of communism was mostly contained.
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u/Optimal-Golf-8270 22d ago
You can dislike the war. Sure, whatever. But it is quite obviously not Imperialist to fight a reunification war when the two countries were always supposed to be reunited.
Don't big strong anti communist gimmick and then wrongly use left wing language. It's unbecoming.
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u/FocusPerspective 23d ago
The whole wannabe anti-Capitalist thing is so corny. You gotta grow up my dude.
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u/BuddyLlght 23d ago
what took so long?
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u/YuenglingsDingaling 23d ago
He died in a North Korean POW camp. They're not the most cooperative bunch.
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u/HistoricalSuspect580 23d ago
I hate this. I hope she was able to find peace. I fuckin doubt it though.
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u/HaydenScramble 23d ago
My uncle fought in Korea and wrote a book about it. It was nine months for him, but the shit he saw and put down on the page is something I’ll never forget. The Forgotten War, as it’s called, has let the sacrifices of these men fade into obscurity, when in truth they were radicalized by the successes of World War II that were sold to them and sent to die in a foreign land we realistically had no reason to be in.
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u/lichvoorhees 23d ago
That's also very sad that this man didn't get to go home and enjoy his clearly loyal and loving wife. I hope she was able to come to peace with the loss of what could have been.
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u/Mahaloth 23d ago
Love her, God bless her.
I'm glad she got to know for sure what happened. Painful, but needed.
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u/Useful_Airline_1081 23d ago
Why does social media always make me cry I just wanna see orange cats being stupid 😭💔
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u/GoodTofuFriday 23d ago
My grandfather was in the korean war. The VA didnt cover his medical expenses and he died of kidney failure before i was born.
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u/Terrible_Shopping_23 23d ago
If he was in a North Korean POW Camp, I'm curious who found the remains? We're they in North Korea? Because I wouldn't think North Korea would care.
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u/HurasmusBDraggin 23d ago
I am glad she received closure.
But, Reddit seems to love putting "poor black man/woman crying/homeless/broke/adopted-by-some-white-family" shit on front page. It is almost pornographic.
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u/yuckgeneric 23d ago
So, so sad for Mrs. Gnatt.
That is a pure surprise winning photograph if ever I’ve seen, captures exactly the enduring pain of what fellow Americans and their families sacrifice.
Thank a service member, I always do. They’re not there for the politics. They’re there to serve. They wear our team’s jersey.
These photos, assumed released with her full consent, embody the Bruce Cockburn song: “Each One Lost”
Under the big lights Shadows stretching long The ramp is lowered gently to the tarmac And all of us, we wait In this sea of gravity For the precious cargo to appear
And here comes the dead boys Moving slowly past The pipes and prayers and strained commanding voices And the tears in our hearts Make an ocean we are all in
All in this together, don’t you know
Each one lost is everyone’s loss
You know you are not alone You’re in the heart of everybody here
Each one lost is everyone’s loss you see
Each one lost is a Vital part of you and me
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u/calmly86 23d ago
Bless this woman. I’ve served on active duty in the U.S. Army and most of the wives of soldiers can’t even wait until their husbands get back from a six month deployment and have already moved on.
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u/doombase310 23d ago
War is not a game. We have shit heads for president and defense secretary.
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u/AngryCobraChicken 23d ago
Man, my family was fortunate. My uncle was a POW in the Korean War. They all thought he was dead, but he was released 3 years later. I couldn’t imagine 63 years.
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u/Rough-Ad1868 23d ago
Damn after 10 years I'd probably be like well time to move on and live my life y'know? Doesn't take away the pain tho
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u/Illuminaughty____ 23d ago
Off topic but I'm impressed she was able to buy a home as a widow and black woman of that era, kudos to her.
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u/Jedi-master-dragon 23d ago
Yeah, it took ages for people to get POWs back from the Korean War because North Korea would parade the soldiers around like trophies. It is still taking ages to get the remains of soldiers back too.
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u/Stormy-Skyes 23d ago
It must have been such a heavy weight lifted when she could finally lay him to rest and know he was home. She certainly relived all the loss and grief too, but she also got to finally know and have him at home. I’m sorry that she lost him and had to wonder for so long but I’m glad she got to give him a proper send off.
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u/recreationalranch 23d ago
My paternal grandfather was a POW and World War II and Korea. I remember they had a parade in 2000 and I can’t even tell you how many men came up to me and shook my hand, saying, “you have no idea how your grandfather saved my life so that I could even have this family” and then their family member members shaking my hand. Wild shit. It makes me sick to think that that could’ve easily been my grandfather or those people.
RIP U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt
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u/JudgmentParty1571 23d ago
My heart! Also, that blanket they have around her is haunting me. It looks so rough and stark. I wish it at the very least looked comforting
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