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Remains of Pfc. James R. Holmes identified 63 years after his death
WARREN
The family of Warren Korean War Army veteran Pfc. James R. Holmes, declared missing in action Dec. 1, 1950, is at peace now that his remains are home at last.
“We are ecstatic,” said his sister, Martha Jane Price of Northridge, Calif. “He has been gone 63 years,” said the 1950 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School.
Holmes’ siblings, who grew up on Warren’s east side, are traveling to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where his remains will be buried with full military honors Thursday. He will receive the Purple Heart and several other military decorations.
“When you have a loved one missing, you want to know where he is and what happened. Nothing could keep me away [from the ceremony],” said James’ younger brother, Clifford Holmes of Warren, who attended Harding and served in the Army from 1958 to 1960.
“He is finally coming home. The Army didn’t give up on it,” he said.
James was serving with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, when he was lost Dec. 1 in North Korea. He was 18.
According to the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, his unit was pushing north through North Korea to the Yalu River, when in late November 1950 it was attacked by enemy forces, and he eventually was captured.
Information about James first came about as part of a 1953 prisoner exchange known as Operation Big Switch. Returning service members reported that Holmes had been captured by the Chinese during the battle and died in 1951 in a prisoner-of-war camp known as Camp 5, near Pyoktong, North Korea.
Later, between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of human remains believed to belong to 350 to 400 U.S. servicemen who fought during the war. North Korean documents turned over with the boxes indicated that some of the remains were recovered from Pyoktong County, near the area where James is believed to have died.
James’ remains, a forearm bone, were identified Jan. 14, 2014, using DNA supplied by Clifford and Martha three or four years ago.
“It was a 100 percent match. We know it was him. We had the forearm cremated, and his ashes will be buried at Arlington,” Martha said.
“James is getting the honor and respect that is his due. There is always the hope that the Department of Defense won’t give up — that they will eventually come home,” Clifford said.
“Because I was the youngest sibling, Jimmy protected me. My brother was so wonderful; nice and kind to me and very quiet and soft-spoken,” said his sister Elaine Holmes Bryant, a 1957 Harding graduate who lives in Cleveland.
Martha said she always hung on to the hope that her brother might someday come home.
“I used to wait for his knock on the door. I couldn’t let it go. ... Maybe when I go to the funeral. I guess I have to let it go now. ... I’m glad he is not hurting anymore,” Martha said.
“I want everyone to know that he was a sweetheart. But he just didn’t have a chance to live to see his nieces and nephews and have children of his own. It’s just a shame. I just hate he couldn’t have lived,” she said.
Elaine said she wants people to know her brother was kind and gentle and always obeyed their mother. Their parents are Harold and Myrtle Holmes.
“We all had to sit at the dinner table together, and he was never late. My mother would get so angry if people didn’t show up for dinner on time, and then it was homework time,” Elaine said.
“I’m just so thrilled to know he is safe ... to know he is in heaven ... and that he is finally at rest in our minds and our hearts,” she added.
If the Army finds any more of Holmes’ remains, Martha asked the Army to cremate the bones and sprinkle the ashes in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
“He has to be someplace warm. He hated the winters,” she said.