当小杰克·法瑞尔., 太阳城网赌平台1944届的一员, 离开美国参加第二次世界大战, 他没有活着回家. First listed as missing in action, he was eventually classified as killed in action. But with his body unaccounted for, the two sisters Farrell left behind in Arlington, Mass., would spend more than half a century unsure of the whereabouts of their beloved brother.
小杰克·法瑞尔. '44 (U.S. 军队图)
One of those sisters, Barbara Farrell Wilson, would go on to have a son. 她叫他杰克，以她哥哥的名字命名. 杰克·威尔逊追随他叔叔的脚步, 就读于太阳城网赌平台, 在1971年获得学士学位后, 在美国为国效力.S. 军队. 年后, Wilson would be instrumental in bringing home his uncle’s remains, uncovering the story of his uncle’s death on a battlefield in Europe, and delivering closure to his uncle’s octogenarian sisters, who had waited 66 years to know what happened to their brother.
小杰克·法瑞尔.的故事在一本新书中被讲述， 万灵节: The World War II Battle and the 搜索 for a Lost U.S. 营 (Potomac Books)，由威尔逊和约瑟夫. Pereira, an award-winning journalist who had a two-decade career with the 《太阳城官网》 他是 《太阳城官网》 staff that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 9/11 attacks.
万灵节 is part investigative journalism, part military history, and part memoir. Together, the authors lay out the story of a bloody conflict in the Hürtgen Forest along the 德国-Belgium border that would go on to be “the worst defeat the Americans suffered in Europe during World War II.” The personnel losses and flawed decision-making associated with this campaign were such a poor reflection on the U.S. military that the story of battle has been largely untold.
原来小杰克·法瑞尔.美国是28国中的一员th 美军步兵师.S. 第一集团军，在赫
但比这个真相更令人震惊的是, was that Farrell’s complete skeletal remains were found in 2008 in the village of Kommerscheidt, 德国.
《太阳城官网》是由约瑟夫·M. Pereira和John L. 威尔逊71年.
The homecoming of Farrell would likely not have happened were it not for the dogged determination of his nephew and namesake Jack 威尔逊71年. Sparked by a photograph of a recently discovered WWII 军队 boot he saw on Boston.2009年, 他现在说那一刻是“上帝在跟我说话。,” Wilson embarked on a quest to find out what happened to his uncle. 参观完后 波士顿环球报 archives and phone calls to several offices in the Washington, D.C.在美国，他与美国联络.S. 军队 Human 资源 Past Conflicts and Repatriation office. 几个月后, a representative of that office sent Wilson kits to collect DNA 从 Farrell’s two sisters, 威尔逊的母亲和他的姨妈, 都是80多岁的老人.
On September 30, 2009, Wilson got a phone call 从 the same office. 打电话的人说, “We’ve made positive identification of the remains of your uncle, 上士约翰·法雷尔.”
“This was the phone call that was 66 years in the waiting,” recalled Wilson. “对我们全家来说，这是一个改变人生的时刻.”
It would be more than six months and many more follow-up calls 从 Wilson before the family would get more details 从 the 军队. In April 2010, two 军队 officials traveled to Norwood, Mass.去见法雷尔/威尔逊一家. During the five-hour meeting, the officials shared an 111-page report. 报告内容见 万灵节 as “perhaps the most precious gift the military can give to a fallen soldier’s family—a painstaking effort by a team of researchers, 历史学家, and forensic experts with the Department of Defense that details the final days and death of a heroic soldier.”
家人和公众现在知道的是:
上士小约翰(杰克)法雷尔. 在赫
1950年，他的遗骸被美国政府宣布为“无法收回”.S. 陆军美国坟墓登记司令部, were discovered in 德国 in 2008 by a German Explosive Ordnance Disposal team that was sweeping the area as required by German law before excavation can begin on a construction project. 还有法雷尔的完整遗骸和狗牌, 钱包等个人物品被找到, 沃特曼钢笔, 还有一个食堂, 里面还含有水.
The family held a funeral Mass for Farrell on April 30, 2010. He was buried with full military honors and laid to rest in a family plot.
In 2012, Wilson and his wife Mary traveled to 德国 and visited the exact location where his uncle’s remains were discovered, 在私人住宅的后院.
“My heart skipped a beat,” Wilson said of being in the spot where his uncle was found. “It was probably one of the most emotional parts of my life—outside of my daughters being born—to see the site that had delivered excruciating pain to my grandparents because they had never gotten a word 从 the U.S. 他们的儿子在哪里. 真是难以置信.”
The German homeowner who greeted Wilson said something that shook him: “There are still many more American boys buried here.”
While the Farrell/Wilson family was “extremely gratified and very happy”, 据威尔逊说, 去了解他们家人的遭遇, Wilson knew there were others in his uncle’s squad who had met the same fate, 但他们的家人仍然一无所知.
That’s the kind of grief, write the authors, that “has been handed down like an ugly heirloom.”
Wilson personally tracked down the surviving relatives of all the soldiers in his uncle’s squad. He met with them and shared with them what he knew about what happened as well as advice on how to track down their loved ones’ remains.
“It was quite an emotional experience,” said Wilson, of his trips throughout the U.S. 2014-2016年与家属会面.
有超过72个,000 American service members still missing 从 the cumulative conflicts fought by the U.S. Wilson hopes his book will give these families hope and insight and encourage families to put pressure on U.S. 官员们帮助将阵亡士兵带回家.
正如威尔逊在 万灵节，“失踪的战士……应该得到同样的待遇。.”
小约翰(杰克)法雷尔. 1944年获得紫心勋章和铜星勋章. His name graces the 太阳城网赌平台退伍军人纪念馆 on Burns Library Lawn.
Kathleen Sullivan | University Communications | November 2020
