His brother's seeker
By Jon Rutter
Sunday News
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Soldiers darted through the smoke, crouching, the outlines of their helmets softened by flimsy leaves of camouflage.
Bombs burst open the frozen earth. Shrapnel buzz-sawed impartially through flesh.
Korea was real war. It was Kenneth R. Stuck's war. Clarence L. Stuck's war.
Only Clarence came back, 54 years ago. The retired Army master sergeant from Manheim is still fighting to find out what happened to his big brother, and to honor American service members who died in North Korea.
Tall, good-natured Kenny was in the 1st Cavalry Division when enemy forces pinned him down in the Wonsan River valley in late 1950.
"His outfit took a hell of a beating," Stuck said. Kenny was captured and marched to a prison camp about nine miles north of the battle site. Then his trail vanished.
Kenny would have turned 76 this past summer. Even today, Stuck holds out a slim ray of hope that his brother is still alive.
There's a greater chance that the soldier's remains lie among several sets of yellowed, fragile-looking bones recovered last year from North Korea.
DNA tests are being conducted at a military lab at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, according to Stuck, who said he expects the results by early next year.
He knows he might never find out what happened to Kenny. But he's intent on a self-appointed mission to recognize his brothers in arms.
In some cases, he said of Korean War casualties, "These guys were shot through the head. They chopped their arms off. They were tortured.
"I want to bring these boys home in honor of my brother."
Born on the Fourth
Kenneth Stuck came into the world on Independence Day.
He had brown hair and a fine sense of humor. "He was a fantastic guy," by Clarence Stuck's account. The two grew up fishing from the banks of the Swatara Creek in Hummelstown.
Kenny was 24 when he enlisted in the Army. He trained for eight weeks at Fort Knox, Ky., and became a corporal.
Stuck, two years younger, joined the 24th Army Infantry not long after. Stationed just eight miles from the Wonsan battle scene, he never saw his brother again.
The boys' mother, Minnie, spent years trying to learn of Kenny's fate. She died in the early 1970s.
"I'll never forget that poor soul," said Clarence Stuck. "She had a gold star in the window."
Stuck named his oldest son after Kenny.
The family will soon get together to present Kenny's Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge and many other medals to the nephew, a retired crew chief with the 193rd Pennsylvania Air National Guard in Middletown.
Stuck began searching for Kenny in earnest in 1994.
Numerous pilgrimages to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base followed.
Now, Stuck is urging anyone who might have a MIA relative to take a DNA test. Results may be sent to one of the military MIA branches listed at the end of this story.
State Rep. Tom Creighton is also attempting to help Stuck match the remains of war victims with their families.
Distributing informational posters to Veterans Administration hospitals is one potential way to alert next of kin, said Creighton's aide, Audrey Atkins.
"This is just on his heart," she said of Stuck's crusade. But the challenge of solving wartime missing in action cases is vast.
The 88,000 U.S. service members classified as MIA include more than 8,100 from Korea.
Only 20 of the 208 skeletal remains obtained from North Korea in the 1990s have been identified, according to Army Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green, spokeswoman for JPAC.
The lab identifies two individuals a week on average, she said.
More than 1,200 have been identified since the Vietnam War, including, two weeks ago, Army Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati, the first World War I serviceman repatriated by JPAC.
Military service casualty offices are responsible for finding service members' next of kin and doing "the knock on the door," Nielson-Green said.
About half the families contacted opt for burial in a federal military cemetery, she added. Casualties for whom no relative can be found are interred with full honors in federal cemeteries.
Eighteen JPAC teams track down and exhume suspected American remains from around the globe. The Korean War poses special problems, according to Nielson-Green.
One, of course, is the current diplomatic impasse between the United States and North Korea. JPAC has staged no missions to the latter country since May 2005, Nielson-Green said.
Another hurdle is that mortuaries years ago embalmed many unidentified Korean War soldiers, a chemical process that makes DNA material difficult to isolate.
"We have many Korean War unknowns buried right here in Hawaii," Nielson-Green said.
JPAC does not release unidentified remains, she added. The unit revisits open cases every year, applying the latest genetic and genealogical information.
JPAC is seeking DNA samples from the maternal relatives of MIAs, Nielson-Green added.
She said she could not comment on the details of the Stuck case.
However, she said, "We are making a very deliberate effort" to find MIAs and gather information that might help link them to family members.
"We may or may not have their loved one in the lab ... but it's a starting point."
Anyone seeking more information about tracing a relative lost in a war may call one of the following service branches: Air Force, 1-800-531-5501; Navy, 1-800-443-9298; Army, 1-800-892-2490; and Marine Corps, 1-800-847-1597.
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