AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
TAYLOR For their entire lives, Susie Mokry and her brother, Saul Salazar, have heard stories
about their uncle, Librado Luna, who had been missing
in action since a Korean War battle in 1950.
Now, the remains of the Army corporal are
coming home to
"He'll get what he finally
deserves," said Mokry, 45 .
"We've never, never, never forgot him."
When the family including Luna's sister,
Sara Luna, and brother, Pete Herrera honor Luna with a Catholic memorial
Mass, it will put to rest decades of searching that ultimately involved a
Korean schoolgirl, DNA testing and the persistence of military officials and
Luna's family.
Luna's company was fighting on the front near
the Chinese border on
Luna and nine other men were among those
reported missing.
Luna became one of thousands of Americans
missing in the war. He had just turned 18.
In 1953, Salazar said, the Army offered
Luna's mother, Jesusa , a funeral service. Not until he comes home, she said .
By the time Jesusa
passed away in the late 1960s , the family had all but given up on finding
Luna, a 119-pound man from a poor family who had to try three times to enlist
in the Army, according to Mokry ("He'd eat and
eat and work out" until he was accepted, according to the stories Mokry heard).
"Everyone figured it was too late,"
said Salazar, whose uncle was born in
"We always kept him in our prayers,
talked about him with our kids," Mokry said.
"We thought they'd never find him."
But a decade ago, Mokry
made a call after seeing an announcement in the Taylor Daily Press asking for
families of missing military personnel to come forward.
"People said, 'Estαs
loca,' " you're crazy "
'You're never going to find anything out,' " Mokry
said.
But she and her brother they have five
other siblings kept in touch with military officials.
About three years ago, Mokry,
Salazar, and their mother, Sara Luna, went to a military conference at a San
Antonio hotel, where officials took DNA samples by swabbing Sara Luna's and
Salazar's cheeks.
Years earlier, a schoolgirl and her
classmates had discovered human remains while planting trees near the site of
the battle, Mokry said. In 1998, a joint U.S.-North
Korean team excavated the site.
Mokry and Salazar, 55 , didn't
hear anything for a long time. Then, earlier this month, military officials
delivered the news: Partial remains of their uncle had been found. DNA from a
hip bone matched the family's. The remains were
heading to
"It's a great relief," Salazar
said. "He was just a good, honest person that's why God gave him back so
we could go ahead and bury him."
"You hear about someone your whole life,
and you only have a couple of pictures," Mokry
said. "Now, it's really real, it's true. He existed, and now everyone
knows."
Tears fill her eyes, and she explains that
she's not sad but proud.
"I'm proud that he was that good of a
person," she said. "He fought for our country. He fought so hard to
get in the military. It makes me proud we have a member like that in our
family."
Mokry and Salazar said they hope their story inspires
others to pursue DNA testing to help find a relative missing in action.
There are 8,046 Americans unaccounted for
from the Korean War alone, according to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command.
"People just give up," Mokry says. "We were hungry for more."
People who have information related to
missing Americans from past conflicts may call the Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command at 1-866-913-1286.
cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548