Fallen Korean War soldier laid to rest at last on native soil
Veterans gather at services for Edwin Steigerwalt, who vanished in battle.
By Romy Varghese
Of The Morning Call
The lingering image for the family of Edwin Steigerwalt was of a young man in Army uniform, a helmet shadowing his boyish face, a rifle pointed upward in his hands.
On Friday, Steigerwalt's family had their final image, 55 years in coming: his coffin, draped with an American flag.
The 22-year-old Lehighton man who disappeared while fighting in the Korean War was buried in Lehigh County with military honors.
Although Steigerwalt's remains and those of other soldiers were turned over by the North Korean government in 1993, he was only recently identified.
At a brief ceremony at Cedar Hill Memorial Park in Hanover Township, about 100 people - many of them veterans - gathered to honor the young man who was so intent on serving his country, he tried to join the Army at 17. He later enlisted two months after his 18th birthday.
Three years after Steigerwalt vanished during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, a military panel declared he was presumed dead. Decades passed. His parents, now deceased, had hoped he would one day come home and receive a proper funeral.
"I know the family never forgot over those many years," Army Chaplain Richard L. Pace said during the service, which fell on national POW/MIA Recognition Day. "The love was strong."
Col. Pace recounted that he was the chaplain at a solemn repatriation ceremony in 1993, possibly the same one in which Steigerwalt's remains were returned. It took place in Panmunjom, a village straddling North and South Korea where truce talks had been held.
North Korean soldiers handed wooden coffins over a line, painted on the ground, that divided the two countries. American soldiers placed the coffins in perfect formation on stands. The only sound, Pace said, was the click of the soldiers' boots.
Pace felt honored to officiate at the funeral of a soldier he might have prayed over 12 years ago. "He died before I was born, but I felt connected to him," he said after the service.
For the veterans in attendance - some of whom had to walk with care over the hilly ground to the gravesite - they too felt a kinship with a man who died for his country. It's a brotherhood, a few said of military duty.
Unlike some, Richard Emling of Allentown had never gone to a funeral of a soldier he didn't know. But the Korean War veteran was spurred to go to Steigerwalt's with his wife, Janice, because he too had been at Chosin Reservoir, but in a different year.
"I remember how cold it was," he said. "It's horrible."
In November 1950, Steigerwalt was assigned to the Heavy Mortar Company of the 31st Infantry Regiment, part of the 31st Regimental Combat Team fighting east of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. Deemed missing in action, he was promoted from private to corporal.
Steigerwalt's three surviving sisters didn't speak at the funeral, but spokesman Robert B. Heintzelman read aloud a statement from them. They thanked everyone who supported them over the years, the veterans and the military officials involved in the recovery and identification of their brother.
They also spoke of those who are still awaiting closure. Of the 88,000 service members missing in action in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War, 8,100 are from the Korean War.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to those families who still have loved ones missing from the field of battle," Steigerwalt's sisters wrote. "May you someday soon find the peace that we now feel."
romy.varghese@mcall.com
© 2005, The Morning Call