News-Info-Alerts

Re: MIA Honored Half A World Away

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: June 24, 2003

"Service, tombstone honors BR soldier killed in Korean War
By GEORGE MORRIS
gmorris@theadvocate.com Advocate staff writer

Half a world away from the cold, bleak hillside where he died almost 53 years ago, a Korean War hero finally received his military headstone Monday.

Though his body remains in North Korea, a service was held for Cpl. Andrew J. Gasquet Jr. at Baton Rouge National Cemetery, just four blocks from the house where he grew up.

"I understand Andy's not really … home, which I wish he was, along with all the others that were left over there," said Fran Kinman, Gasquet's first cousin.

"But my grandfather and his grandfather are buried right across the street at Magnolia (Cemetery), so he really won't be by himself."

Gasquet's sisters, Betty Weaver of Gonzales and Janette Stroughter of Zachary, and about three dozen family members and friends gathered for the ceremony. "Taps" played from a tape deck, and the family received a folded American flag from soldiers with the 321st Theater Material Management Center.

"He truly was a hero," said the Rev. Dan Ohlerking, who spoke during the brief ceremony.

The steamy afternoon and quiet surroundings stood in stark contrast to Gasquet's last moments.

By Thanksgiving 1950, American and South Korean armies had driven so far into North Korea that it appeared the war might end by Christmas. China, however, entered the war on North Korea's behalf and had slipped a huge force across the border. On a brutally cold Nov. 25, it struck.

Gasquet was a machine gunner positioned on a hill when Chinese forces reached G Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, near the town of Kunu-rion Nov. 26.

Gasquet's platoon was ordered to fall back, according to the book on the battle, "The River and the Gauntlet," by S.L.A. Marshall.

Gasquet refused.

"He continued to fire until his position was overrun by the enemy and shortly after, the company was forced to abandon their defenses," reads Gasquet's posthumous citation for the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest medal for heroism.

"His intense devotion to … his platoon was clearly demonstrated by his voluntary action of remaining behind to cover their withdrawal. His extraordinary heroism and selfless regard for personal safety were highly inspirational to the remaining members of his platoon, and were in keeping with the high traditions of the military service."

Gasquet initially was listed as missing in action. His body was not recovered, and his name appeared on no prisoner of war lists at war's end.

The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.

Korea was Gasquet's second war. In World War II, Stroughter said, Gasquet lied about his age and joined the Navy at age 16.

As a result, his headstone lists Sept. 24, 1925, as his birth date. He was born in 1927, Stroughter said.

"He wasn't nothing but a baby," Weaver said. "He wasn't nothing but a baby when he got killed."

Gasquet served aboard six ships in World War II and received the Asiatic-Pacific Medal, American Area Medal, World War II Victory Medal and Philippine Liberation Medal. He enlisted in the Army in 1948, a year after leaving the Navy and two years before the Korean War broke out.

His siblings remember a gentle man. Gasquet's family lived at 640 N. 19th St.

"He was just a nice person, and he loved to listen to opera," Stroughter said. "He loved it. He loved to listen to it all the time. He wasn't with sports or anything like that."

"He was very quiet," Weaver said. "He didn't seem like anybody that would want to go and stay on a hill while somebody was charging at you to kill you."

Several family members are angry that the ceremony didn't happen years ago.

Stroughter and Weaver said their parents apparently didn't know they could have one. Andrew Gasquet Sr. died in 1955, and Ruby Gasquet died in 1974. Their other son, Claude, died in 1983.

The military provides a headstone for veterans, and an Army representative should have contacted his next of kin after his death to return personal effects and explain benefits, said Shari Lawrence, spokeswoman for Army Personnel Command in Alexandria, Va.

Relatives would have to request a headstone from the Department of Veterans Affairs through the cemetery's funeral director, Lawrence said. Lawrence said her office's records do not go back far enough to determine what was done in Gasquet's case.

"My gut reaction is we did contact families when we first knew they were dead, when we made that presumption of death," Lawrence said Monday.

Earlier this year, Janette and Jack Stroughter were contacted by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, which searches for the remains of missing servicemen. The family learned they could have a memorial service and headstone when they attended a meeting about search efforts.

They inquired through Port Hudson National Cemetery, starting the process leading to Monday's ceremony.

"I'm emotional about it because I watched my aunt cry at our house several times and having her say so many times that it was devastating to lose a child … killed that far from home by somebody that hated you," Kinman said.

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