POW/MIA Korean War Veteran Finally Laid To Rest
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 NEWS) - After being listed as missing in action for more than 60 years, a Korean War vet was laid to rest today.
This year private first class Weldon Davis would have turned 87 years old. At age 26 he was taken prisoner by the North Korean army and never seen again by his fellow soldiers. He was never forgotten either.
"We talked about him all the time" David Beavers of Athens told CBS11. The story of his missing cousin always came up at family reunions. "They had nothing but good things to say" said Beavers.
For more than 60 years Weldon Davis was listed missing in action. In 2005 Army investigators were granted permission by the North Korean government to search a shallow mass grave of P.O.W's. Over 30 years Last fall Davis's remains were identified by the D-N-A of his cousins.
Mary Jo Beavers was seven years younger than Weldon and remembers a handsome young man who liked to tease his younger cousins."He was just a typical boy...a teenager really that I remember mostly about."
Cousins are that all survive of his family. They joined his military family under a bright winter sky to bring him here at the Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery.
An honor guard carried his flag-draped casket to a brief ceremony that included a 21-gun salute. A large contingent of the Patriot Riders, a volunteer group that help out at military funerals was on hand.
After 55 years in an unmarked grave in a land ruled by a dictator, the left-handed high school pitcher from Amarillo is back to his land of the free, among a family and a country that remembers.
"He's in good hands" says David Beavers his voice choking, "I think he is well thought of. I think he is where he wants to be"
His cousin Helen White agrees. They could have chosen a family plot north of Dallas. "I think he is the right place. I think this is where he would want to be" she said.
A place that he knew so well for all those years in a shallow grave in North Korea, a place alongside fellow soldiers. But now home in Texas.
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