Mississippi Wing

Funeral Planned for WWII Soldier

Thu Jan 27, 9:00 AM ET

By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Pvt. Odell Sharpe, killed during World War II, is finally coming home. The remains of Sharpe - presumed slain on Christmas Day 1944 when he as only 19 - were recently identified from a skeleton found in a foxhole near the Belgian-German border.

       
Now his family is preparing for something long overdue: a funeral.  "I had just made up my mind that I would never know what happened to him, and believe you me, there was many a day I wondered," his sister, Mary Miller, said Wednesday from her home in the farm town of Uvalda.
Three Belgian civilians working for a non-governmental group that searches for lost World War II casualties discovered the remains in September 2003.

They found pieces of an infantry soldier's uniform, a skeleton, upper and lower jawbones and dog tags bearing Sharpe's name.  The military did not notify Sharpe's family until more than a year later, after thoroughly analyzing the bones and teeth to make sure they matched Sharpe's medical records.
Lt. Ken Hall, with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, said it's not unusual to recover the remains of World War II soldiers six decades later.   About 78,000 Americans from World War II are still unaccounted for. 

The son of sharecropping parents, Sharpe was drafted by the Army in January 1944, Miller said, and went to Europe as a machine gunner with the 99^th Infantry Division.  Sharpe's unit was among 80,000 troops in Belgium trying to stop a German force of 250,000 from advancing against Allied lines in an initial assault of the Battle of the Bulge. Sharpe was lost during the confusion of a forced retreat.   "My momma got a telegram from the Army sometime in January 1945 saying he was missing in action," said George Sharpe, who was 14 when his brother died. "It was either July or August when she got another one and it said `presumed killed in action.' That's hard to live with."   On Sunday, Sharpe will be buried next to his parents in the family plot at Dead River Cemetery. Soldiers from Fort Stewart will provide full military honors - serving as pallbearers, presenting the family with a flag and firing a three-volley salute as a bugler plays taps.   Miller, 71, said her family never had a funeral for Sharpe after the Army declared him presumed dead. Her father decided against it to spare their grieving mother.

 
Miller's memories include Sharpe watching over his younger siblings while their parents worked the corn and cotton fields. She also remembered him teaching her to iron clothes. Even so long after he died, she said, the thought of burying him still brings sadness.   "It's like losing him all over again," she said. "But we're very, very proud we can finally put him where he belongs, and he's not way over in another country in a hole by himself.

SCHEDULE OF 2005’s EVENTS:

Apr 2/3       Slidell, LA

Apr 23        Galveston, TX

May 14/15     Tyndall AFB

May 14        Barksdale AFB

May 21/22     Natchez Airshow

Jun 2-5       Tunica Air Races

mid-July      Pensacola Beach

Jul 30        Huntsville

Sep 10        Greenville, MS

Sep 10/11     Smyrna, TN

Sep 17/18     Birmingham

Oct 1/2       FINA-CAF

Oct 1/2       Millington, TN

Oct 8/9       Little Rock

Oct 8/9        Tennessee Skyfest

Oct 22/23     New Orleans NAS

Oct 29        Tallulah/Vicksburg

Nov 5         Keesler AFB

Nov 12        Wing Open House

Nov 12        Pensacola NAS

TUNICA AIR RACES =>>

     Tunica County, Mississippi is now officially home to one of the most thrilling and the absolute fastest motorsports competitions on the planet and it's set to take off in late spring.

     The Tunica Air Races and Air Show is scheduled to take place at the Tunica, MS airport on June 2-5, 2005.

© Mississippi Wing, Commemorative Air Force