Family’s grief returns with discovery of World War II remain

[West-Front]

Family’s grief returns with discovery of World War II remains
By MEREDITH RODRIGUEZ
The Kansas City Star

Henry “Rickey” Marquez
On Wednesday, the Patriot Guard will escort Pvt. Henry “Rickey” E. Marquez’s ashes from Kansas City International Airport to his final resting place in Kansas City, Kan.

The beginning of the end came last week with a FedEx envelope on his sister’s doorstep. Inside was a wooden box and Marquez’s dog tags from World War II — tags discovered along with his remains two years ago by a German souvenir hunter in the Huertgen Forest.

“It’s like it’s all back again, and we hurt real bad,” Hildreth Stuart said. “When I look at that and I think, ‘That was around my brother’s neck. That was on his throat when they found him.’ ”A neighbor came by the day the package came, but Stuart could not pay attention. Her mind was on the package and, as is often the case, on her 18-year-old brother who died 64 years ago.

Marquez grew up in the Armourdale area of Kansas City, Kan., one of six siblings. He was full of dreams and promise when he was drafted. He had a savings account, grew flowers, raised and sold pigeons, made money shining shoes. He played basketball and played the piano. His favorite song was “I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time.”

Most of those who remember the sharp dresser who had his father’s Mexican features have died.Marquez will be buried with full military honors next to his father and mother at Highland Park Cemetery at 11 a.m. Saturday.

On Nov. 4, 1944, his Army regiment — the 112th Infantry of the 28th Division — was pushing east through the Huertgen Forest toward the German towns of Vossenack and Schmidt. Marquez had been fighting only a few months in Company G when machine-gun fire killed him in a foxhole with Pfc. Julian H. Rogers of Indiana.Soldiers saw both men dead that day, but Marquez’s body couldn’t be recovered and the U.S. military declared him missing. He was officially presumed dead a year later, but that did not keep his family from hoping he was somehow just missing.

John Clark Marquez was too young to remember when his brother left but grew up “hearing about the wonderful brother I never got a chance to know.” He watched his parents keep a savings account for his brother, and his room was untouched.John Clark Marquez went along with the fantasies, but “there was some point I accepted the fact he was dead,” he said.

Final confirmation and details of how Rickey Marquez died did not come until recently. Brothers John Clark Marquez and Carl Marquez, who rarely talk, called each other. They were emotionally overwhelmed by the conditions in which their brother died.“The fighting was some of the most vicious fighting of the Second World War. It was almost an impenetrable forest, a horrible place,” John Clark Marquez said.

More than 170 American servicemen are unaccounted for in the Huertgen Forest, said Larry Greer of the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

To reach Meredith Rodriguez, call 816-234-4415 or send e-mail to mrodriguez@kcstar.com.

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Intresting Good thread

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