Missing for 65 years, Pfc. Jones finally receives burial at the Chattanooga National Cemetery

A crowd fills the area around the pavilion during burial service at the National Cemetery for U.S. Army Pfc. Lotchie Jones. Jones went missing in action during the Korean War, and his remains were identified last year.
A crowd fills the area around the pavilion during burial service at the National Cemetery for U.S. Army Pfc. Lotchie Jones. Jones went missing in action during the Korean War, and his remains were identified last year.

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After 64 years, Korea War veteran Lotchie Jones comes homeRemains of Pfc. Lotchie Jones now in Tennessee, bound for home in Jasper Home at last: Family never forgot Marion County teen who shipped out for Korea in '50

photo People of the town of Jasper turn out to pay respects as the remains of U.S. Army Pfc. Lotchie Jones proceeds past the courthouse and Jasper Drug Co., where he boarded a bus for the War in Korea in 1950. From left are Vickie Tuders, Kristy Walden, Regina Phillips and Mark Griffith, all from Marion County Schools Central Office.

As his family gathered around him Friday, the flag hanging at half-staff at the Chattanooga National Cemetery filled with a spirited wind to welcome U.S. Army Pfc. Lotchie John Ray Jones home.

In a letter he wrote just a week before he went missing near Unsan, North Korea, on Nov. 2, 1950, the 17-year-old Marion County native revealed a little of his youth -- he told his family to send candy and chewing gum -- and his homesickness in a request for paper and pencil to write home.

Another letter directed his family to "Please tell Daddy, if I was there I'd be ready to go fishing," Lotchia Allen Jones, the veteran's nephew and namesake, told more than 100 in attendance at funeral services Friday in Jasper, Tenn.

When he joined, Lotchie Jones meant to make a career of the Army. His career lasted just 293 days from enlistment until he died during 118 days of captivity at Pyoktong Prisoner of War Camp 5 on Feb. 28, 1951.

It would be 64 years before he would make it back to his Tennessee homeland. The Chinese military turned over remains recovered at POW Camp 5 that included Pfc. Jones, but there was no way to conclusively identify Jones until 2014, when officials were able to match remains to the name of a Marion County boy who caught a fateful bus at the Jasper Drug Store in May 1950.

"Most of us didn't know Lotchie," Marion County Mayor David Jackson said at the funeral service on Friday. "But we know the Jones family and service of his and his older brothers."

Remarking on Jones' arrival Wednesday in Jasper, Jackson said, "Seeing the procession and knowing the story, we were honoring a hero, a man who gave his life so that we may have the freedoms we have today, and it gives closure to the Jones family to finally have their loved one home."

U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., noted that when a soldier goes missing in action, his family has no closure, never knowing what happened to their loved one.

"We are extremely grateful that after more than six decades, Pfc. Lotchie Jones is finally returned to Tennessee," DesJarlais said. "The nation owes an immeasurable amount of gratitude to Pfc. Lotchie Jones. He is without a doubt the embodiment of the best America has to offer."

Jones was captured Nov. 2, 1950, during the Battle of Unsan.

A death in battle

At just 17, Lotchie Jones shipped out to the Far East and fate with B Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in September 1950.

Hostilities had begun just three months before when 90,000 Russian-armed North Korean soldiers assaulted an unprepared 1st Cavalry Division that was among the first units to engage well-armed enemy forces invading South Korea from the north, according to documents on the U.S. Army Center of Military History website.

In late October 1950, units in the 1st Cavalry Division's troopers were spread out, dispersed across a large area of rough terrain, and its commander sought to withdraw troops in Jones' 8th Cavalry Regiment and requested support from the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Both requests were denied as front line reports increasingly suggested Chinese forces were bolstering the enemy.

photo Family members and others exit after burial service at the National Cemetery for U.S. Army Pfc. Lotchie Jones. Jones went missing in action during the Korean War, and his remains were identified last year.

By nightfall on Nov. 1, 1950, the 8th Cavalry Regiment was surrounded by enemy forces on three of four sides. Besides mortar and small-arms fire, Jones' regiment began taking fire of a new sort from Russian-made rockets being launched from trucks.

Confusion spread and the men tried to escape in groups or as individuals, and worked to get around enemy roadblocks and abandoned vehicles left in the road.

Army records did not describe what happened to all the members of Company B on Nov. 2, except that they were scattered again and many -- including Lotchie Jones -- were lost in the chaos.

The people of South Korea recognize the sacrifice of the Americans who traveled half a world to defend their homeland against the North, a local resident said this week.

Dr. Chung Shik Kim, 88, served in the Republic of Korea Army as a doctor tending wounded behind the front lines from 1951 until 1954.

"As a former Korean National, I am sincerely thankful for what the U.S. soldiers did for a land they'd never seen, never heard of," Kim said. He attended the burial service Friday afternoon in Chattanooga.

As the crowd filed away Friday, Pfc. Jones' brother, M.V. "Jonsie" Jones, said he thought the service "couldn't have been no better."

"He's home now and I'm satisfied," he said. "After 64 years, he's home."

Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.

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