GRANT, Mich — Daniel Smith never knew his Uncle Thomas.
Daniel was born a few years after Tom passed away. All he ever had were vague stories with the sparse information that was available at the time.
“I can remember the stories of being told that initially he lost his life in a tank accident. He was blown up in a tank, and his remains never recovered. That's basically what the family knew so far as what had happened to Tom. Supposedly he lost his life on a bridge,” Daniel said.
Tom, known by his pals as a prankster, was just 17 years old when he bid farewell to his hometown of Grant to go fight in the Korean War.
He was part of the Army’s 24th Infantry Division and was last seen on August 2, 1950, near Chinju, at the southern edge of the Korean peninsula.
No one knew for sure what happened to Tom. By 1953, he was presumed dead.
More than 70 years after his disappearance, scientists analyzed remains found on Korean soil and determined they belonged to Tom.
That discovery changed the way Daniel thought about the stories he’d been told about the uncle he never knew.
“I stood on the tarmac and Tom's remains were flown in. At that point, I felt a feeling of gratitude to not only Tom, but to all service people that have given the greatest sacrifice that there is so that we can live in a free country,” he said.
“On the way from the airport to the funeral home, the mass amount of people that were lining the streets with signs and standing alongside the road makes you feel good to be an American, and that people care.”
13 ON YOUR SIDE was there in June when Tom's remains were returned to Grant. He's since been buried at the Bridgeton Township Cemetery.
On Saturday, Sept. 21, Tom’s family will be honored along with the families of three other servicemembers – Roland Pineau of Berkley, Edward Wentworth of Mt. Pleasant and Byron Fouty of Detroit.
The event will be the second annual POW-MIA Plaques of Honor recognition ceremony in Mt. Pleasant.
There will be a 12:15 p.m. motorcycle procession at the old Mt. Pleasant State Police Post before the ceremony begins at 1 p.m.
“Michigan's given a lot historically. Now it's time to do something for an area that is forgotten, and it's the families of the POWs and MIAs,” said Doug Pickel who organizes the event with Vietnam veteran and Grand Rapids native Calvin Murphy.
“Nobody's ever really done anything for our POW families. I mean, what do they get, really? On September 20 (National POW MIA Recognition Day), maybe somebody will raise a flag or host a barbecue with the VFW for them. That's it. Rarely do you hear of anything else.”
Pickel makes the POW plaques given to the families by hand. They cost hundreds of dollars to produce and each one takes around 60 hours to make.
“These are not trinkets. They'll never be treated as trinkets. They're of the highest respect and honor we can afford. Every one of these - they're heirlooms for the next generation so this memory will continue and it'll live on, hopefully forever,” Pickel said.
The plaques aren’t the only things the families will receive at the ceremony.
“We invited members of the South Korean consulate to come up and they are actually coming up to present the Korean War families with peacekeeper medals from the South Korean government,” Pickel said.
“The South Koreans, they just have a special heart. They know sacrifice because their country was at war and they had foreigners on their land fighting for them. They didn't know them people from Adam, so this is their way of showing their ultimate respect so many years after.”
The Korean War is often called “The Forgotten War.” But more than 70 years after his death, Thomas Smith is not forgotten – not by the country he fought for, nor the country he helped and especially not by the people who loved him the most.
“I think that's not only important for us as a family, but I also think that it's important for the rest of America to understand the sacrifices that were made so that we can live the lives that we do live today and have the freedoms that we do,” Daniel said.
“I think each of us has to work that out in our mind, upon how we serve that and what we do to help people with that, and I think the more people that can get involved with our veterans and do things for our veterans, the better off we all will be.”
In addition to the POW-MIA Plaques of Honor Ceremony becoming an annual event, Pickel and Murphy are working with the City of Mt. Pleasant to create a permanent POW-MIA memorial.
Pickel said it will be heartfelt, educational and privately funded, “not by the government or by one company.”
Anyone who wants to help can write a check to the Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation, with a note in the memo line that their donation is for the Michigan POW-MIA Memorial.