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After 75 years, a heroic Virginia family was finally able to bury the remains of a loved one killed in the Korean War. But they are still waiting on his brother, who died the same year in the same war.
Army Cpl. Marvin Silvester Patton, of Tazewell, Va., who went missing in Korea in 1950, was laid to rest March 9 with full military honors.
But the remains of his older brother, Pfc. Johnny Lee Patton, who died as a prisoner of war in 1950, have never come home.
The Patton family sent three sons to Korea. The third brother, Pvt. Carl Roger Patton, was ordered home by the Army after the family had already lost so much.
Marvin enlisted fresh out of high school on Jan. 4, 1949. He was serving with Company B, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division when he vanished after a battle in Osan, South Korea on July 5, 1950. He was 20 years old. The Army declared him presumptively dead in 1956.
For three-quarters of a century, the family waited.
His remains were officially accounted for on Aug. 1, 2025, by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which uses forensic science, historical records, and family DNA to make positive identifications.
The family now has some closure, said Susan Bartlett, a niece: “We had happy tears and we got sad tears. But mostly happy because we finally get to bring him home. It’s an honor to bring Uncle Marvin home.”
Dozens of family members and friends packed the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin, Va., on March 9 to say goodbye — and to hear words Marvin had written home decades earlier.
Bartlett read aloud a letter he had sent to his mother, Edna Mae, preserved all these years in the family bible.
“Dear Mama and all, just a few lines to let you hear from me,” he wrote. “I’m just fine and hope you are all the same. Fine I hope.”
The ceremony included a three-shot volley, the folding of the American flag, and the playing of Taps. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ordered flags outside all government buildings flown at half-staff on March 13 in his honor.
“My mom [Marvin’s sister] grew up not really knowing who he was other than her first eight years with him,” another niece, Judy Remines, said. “Knowing that she is able to fulfill something for her mom and dad — to bring him home.”
Now, the family is counting on the DPAA to bring Johnny home.
Since the end of the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, roughly 2,450 soldiers’ remains have been identified and returned home, leaving 7,500 still unaccounted for, according to the DPAA.
“We are so honored to be welcoming home this Korean War Hero, and so grateful for the extraordinary sacrifice of the Patton family” said John Maxwell, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services. “Bringing Corporal Patton back to Virginia 75 years after his death demonstrates our nation’s commitment to never leaving a service person behind.”
Patton’s name lives on in stone on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., but now he can finally rest in peace on American soil.
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