Coming home

Seventy-four years ago, a young man named Cpl. Robert Paul Raess went missing in the humid subtropical region of Changnyeong, South Korea. He was just 21 years old and more than 6,000 miles from the small Wisconsin town where he grew up. He was soon reported missing in action and later declared dead.

Seventy-four years later, his remains finally arrived home. As they made their way along Highway 18-151 on September 5, local veterans and first responders looked down from each overpass, flying the Stars and Stripes and giving this long-dead soldier the homecoming he deserved.

He was laid to rest on September 7 in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Dodgeville, the same town were Raess graduated from high school in the first half of the 20th Century, right by his parents, who emigrated to the United States from Switzerland.

As Mike Jennings, leader of the local VFW and American Legion Honor Guard aptly put it, “He’s finally home.”

Robert was born on November 26, 1928 to John and Alice Raess.

“I was quite young when he left,” recalls his sister, Mary Alice Jackson Raess, who is his last surviving sibling. “But yes, yes, I remember him.”

“He loved to chew gum, and he would ask me to scratch his back and give me a stick of gum for it,” she continued. “This was in the days when gum came in those long sticks.”

She remembers her big brother as “good looking” and “nice.”

After graduating, he served his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

She recalls how she felt when she learned he had died so very far away.

“They were in this battle and they just got overrun,” his sister added.

“In late 1950, Raess was a member of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division,” reads his obituary. “He was reported missing in action on Sept. 1, 1950, near Changnyeong, South Korea. The Army officially declared Raess deceased on Dec. 31, 1953, and declared his remains non-recoverable Jan. 16, 1956.”

But all hope was not lost.

It was in January of 1951 that the American Graves Registration Service Group (AGRSG) consolidated the remains from 12 smaller military cemeteries at the newly established United Nations Military Cemetery in Tanggok, South Korea. One set of remains - designated X-1578 Tanggok - had been recovered from the area where Raess was last seen. In 1956, X-1578 Tanggok was unable to be identified, and was then transported to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu where they were buried as Unknowns.

Just over a half century later, in July of 2018, the Department of Defense (DoD) approved a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the National Memorial Cemetery. On April 19, 2021, the remains of X-1578 Tanggok were disinterred and sent to the DPAA Laboratory, where they were tested, along with a sample from a living relative, and his identity was confirmed.

“With technology today, they can do it,” said Jennings.

And they did, verifying his identity and making plans to bring him home, from Hawaii to Wisconsin. As what was left of his body was carried to his final resting place, people stood along the route, as if guiding young Robert through the fog of time and sorrow.

“It’s been amazing,” said Mary Alice as she wept. “I just can’t believe it. So amazing. The motorcycles. The people. The firefighters. And the best thing is, he is buried now right by my parents.”

“It’s such a relief,” she continued. “We knew he wasn’t alive, but now he’s back on American soil and with his family.”

Raess joined his brothers John and Paul and sisters Ida Mae Raess and Eleanor Janssen.

Today, Mary Alice is 87 years old. She remembers her brother, and her parents and other siblings, with a mixture of sadness and joy. She lives in Oregon State, where she stays active caring for a small herd of mules and clearing brush. “The less you do, the less you can do,” she points out when touting the merits of an active life.

She visited Wisconsin to see her brother laid to rest, and while she still misses him, she’s glad he’s home. She’s glad her family are all together. And she’s thankful for the warm homecoming he received, three quarters of a century after breathing his final breath in that far-away forest.

“The more people that remember him, the happier I’ll be,” she said.