LITTLE ROCK, AR – Many veterans and others Thursday (Feb.19) got a chance to say thank you to a soldier that paid the ultimate sacrifice but never got to hear those words.
A couple feet from Highway 65 out of Conway toward the town of Clinton, 86-year-old Melvin Bailey inches closer to make sure he has a front row seat among a crowd of flag waving Arkansans.
“I wouldn’t have missed it if I had to brought in on a stretcher,” the Korean War Veteran says as he waves his own full-size flag.
The moment is just minutes away.
He adds, “We’re just waiting.”
The time spent peering back west down the highway toward I-40 is nothing compared to the years Geraldean Johnson held on to hope.
“It was the coldest winter,” Geraldean shared with us back in December.
In 1950 Geraldean’s 23-year-old husband, Corporal C.G. Bolden left home for the Korean War.
Less than six months later she received the grim news.
She said, “This man came to the kitchen door with a telegram telling me [Bolden] was missing in action.”
He would never return home alive.
In fact, it took 63 years for her to ever hear of her husband again.
We were there in December after Geraldean got the word her husband’s remains had been found and identified.
“I said oh my gosh, I can’t believe this but I always thought they would,” she confessed.
Thursday, waiting on the tarmac of Clinton National airport, Geraldean reunited with her husband once again.
Surrounded by family, carried by fellow servicemen in a flag draped casket, Bolden’s confirmed remains were removed from the belly of the Delta flight from Atlanta to make the last leg of his final trip home.
It’s a mission those that fought along side him in the War wanted to be there for now.
“That means a lot to me to help honor him,” Bailey said.
Officially, Corporal Bolden died April 30th, 1951 as a POW.
The escort from the airport to Clinton was led by members of the Patriot Guard.
Bolden will be laid to rest this Saturday in his hometown of Clinton following a funeral at 1:00 p.m. at Clinton High School.