One Brick Short

His name isn’t really Johnny and he didn’t come home marching, but after nearly 57 years of being missed, Col. Douglas H. Hatfield, of Shenandoah has returned.

Col. Hatfield, and U.S. Air Force colleague Capt. Richard H. Simpson, of Fairhaven, Mich, were crewmembers on a B-29 Superfortress during the Korean War. They were on an April 12, 1951 bombing run over North Korea when a couple of enemy aircraft, MiG-15s, shot them down.

Before the bomber bit it, three crewmembers bailed and were captured. One died while in North Korean captivity and the other two were released in 1954 during Operation “Big Switch.” The dead crewmember’s remains were not returned at the time.

In 1993 when the North Korean government turned over to the United Nations Command 31 boxes containing the remains of U.S. servicemen listed as unaccounted-for. Four sets of remains from this group were subsequently identified as crewmembers from the B-29. In 2000, a joint U.S./Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated an infantry fighting position in Kujang County where they recovered more remains, including those of Col. Hatfield and Capt. Simpson.

Welcome home.