LAMAR, Ark.-“We’ve been waiting for this. I’ve spent my life waiting on my brother to come,” Alice Pearson said.
A Korean War vet was welcomed home and laid to rest after he was reported missing in action 70 years ago.
Army Corporal Jerry Mack Garrison was 21-years-old when the enemy attacked his unit near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea.
In late 1950, Garrison was a member of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion,32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division.
The details of his death are unknown, but with help from the President and through DNA analysis, Corporal Garrison’s remains were identified.
He was accounted for on August. 7, 2019. Alice Pearson is thrilled her brother is finally home.
She’s 84-years-old and remembers when they were growing up.
“It’s just like he’s been gone and now he’s back home,” Pearson said.
Law enforcement agencies, first responders, veterans and hundreds of people showed their love and support for fallen soldier, Cpl. Jerry Mack Garrison.
“I was so proud tears just they wouldn’t stop,” Pearson said.
The family of Corporal Garrison was notified on December 2, 1950, that he was “missing in action” after his unit was attacked during the Korean War’s Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
On Tuesday, he was laid to rest in his hometown of Lamar.
“Welcome home,” the crowd yelled.
A small gesture, his sister, Alice Pearson has waited 70 years to say.
“It was kind of like I didn’t believe it,” Pearson said.
Alice was a teenager when Jerry disappeared.
“It was a bad war we watched and listened in the evenings and we didn’t I thought he would get killed and he did.”
Several decades later, Garrison was accounted for.
“Last July our President made a trip to North Korea and following that trip the remains of many veterans from the Korean War were returned home,” Chaplin LTC Jerry Miller said.
A brother who many gone, but remembered for his sacrifice.
“Welcome home I love you and I’m glad your home,” Pearson said.
Today, 7,609 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.
Garrison’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
