‘Finally home’: Powell Butte native Korean War MIA soldier to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Services planned last summer were delayed a year due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – It’s been nearly two years since New Mexico resident Katherine Gandara got a long-awaited phone call about the uncle she never met: Official word that a set of remains returned by North Korea had been identified as Corporal Norvin Brockett, a Powell Butte resident who at age 17 convinced his family to let him join the Army and fight for his country in Korea.

After nearly 70 years, one of 55 boxes of remains returned by North Korea in 2018 had been identified as those of Brockett by the Defense Department’s POW/Accounting Agency at Pearl Harbor, using DNA analysis.

By late 2019, arrangements were underway for Corporal Brockett’s burial, with full military honors, planned for the summer of 2020 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed those plans, as they have so many other plans.

The Army announced Friday that Brockett's remains will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, July 21. His funeral will be held at Everly-Wheatley Funerals and Cremation, preceding the interment.

The Crook County native was a member of Battery A, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, 31st Regimental Combat Team, when he was reported missing in action on Dec. 6, 1950, after his unit was attacked by enemy forces in the vicinity the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. Following the battle his remains could not be recovered. He was just 18 years old.

Brockett's remains were turned over by North Korea on July 27, 2018. He was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency a year later, on Aug. 5, 2019, after his remains were identified using circumstantial and material evidence, as well as, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.

Brockett'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 still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name, to indicate he has been accounted for.

Still, More than 7,500 other Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, the news release noted.

Gandara, who received that call about her uncle two summers ago, is now busy with travel preparations, and filled NewsChannel 21 over the weekend about their plans, also confirming the pandemic-related delay.

"The pandemic and the resulting safety protocols and restrictions is the only reason my uncle’s funeral was delayed," Gandara wrote. "We worked with the Army team overseeing my uncle’s return and burial to find the best date that would allow him to receive full military honors without any restrictions."

"My uncle’s remains are being transferred from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Hawaii to Washington, D.C. An Army liaison officer to our family, Major John Rohn, will meet the plane carrying my uncle’s remains on Monday.

"Myself, my son Jesse Gandara, and his fiancé Merline Montoya will arrive in Washington DC on Tuesday to attend the funeral and internment the next day. On Wednesday at 9 a.m. (EST) there will be a service in the chapel at Arlington, and following the chapel my uncle’s remains will be transferred via caisson to his Arlington gravesite.

"It is an honor to be able to attend this long-overdue honoring of my uncle. It is sad that our entire family isn’t able to be present," Gandara wrote. She added that they are grateful to Bend veterans activist retired Army Lt. Colonel Dick Tobiason for arranging the September 2020 dedication of POW/MIA Memorial Highway signs.

"Many of my family members in Oregon were able to attend the September 18, 2020 sign dedication in Prineville that included my mother, Martha Brockett, brother Lyle Brockett, niece and nephew Amanda and Clinton Brockett, and sister Rhonda Bidwell," Gandara wrote.

Tobiason noted that Gov. Kate Brown recently signed HB 2700 into law, which allows the families of fallen MIAs to request a Fallen Hero Highway sign for members of the Armed Forces, if the remains are returned to Oregon and the family arranges to cover ODOT's $600 sign costs.

That apparently won't apply in Brockett's case, since his remains are not coming back into Oregon.

Tobiason said he had asked that the bill include roadside markers for MIAs whose remains are returned to families instead of to Oregon, which would have made Brockett eligible, but lawmakers did not approve the change.

He also said the Bend Heroes Foundation has added Brockett’s name to the granite monument at the Bend Heroes Memorial, since he entered military service from Bend.

Gandara added, "It is very humbling to have the honor of watching my uncle receive full military honors into Arlington National Cemetery, joining all the other servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and what it stands for.

"I never thought this day would come. I will not only get to honor my uncle, but I will also get to honor the promise I made to my late) father nearly 13 years ago.

"While Wednesday’s funeral will be sad, it will also be joyous, because our uncle will finally be home," Gandara added.

For additional information about Cpl. Brockett, go to https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/1928631/soldier-accounted-for-from-korean-war-brockett-n/

To learn more about the Department of Defense's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil,
www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call (703) 699-1420/1169.