Politics & Government

POW Missing Nearly 63 Years to Be Buried in Inglewood

Funeral services will be held tomorrow for an Army sergeant who died as a prisoner of war in Korea nearly 63 years ago.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow for an Army sergeant who died as a prisoner of war in Korea nearly 63 years ago but whose remains were only recently identified and returned to Los Angeles.

The service for Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt, with full military honors, will be held at 11 a.m. at the Dwelling Place Foursquare Church, 3130 W. 111th Place in Inglewood. Interment will follow at Inglewood Park Cemetery, 3803 W. Manchester Blvd.

The funeral will be private, but the cemetery service will be open to the public, according to the USO Greater Los Angeles Area.

Find out what's happening in South Gate-Lynwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Gantt joined the Army in 1942 and served in the South Pacific during World War II. He met his wife, Clara, while traveling by train from Texas to Los Angeles, and they married in June 1948. They had no children.

Gantt was then deployed to Korea as a field medic and taken prisoner near Kunu-ri on Dec. 1, 1950. He was listed as missing in action/presumed dead for nearly 63 years. It was later determined that he died March 27, 1951, according to the USO.

Find out what's happening in South Gate-Lynwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

His remains were flown to Los Angeles International Airport Dec. 20 from Honolulu -- the home of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and forensic labs.

Gantt's 94-year-old widow was on hand when the remains arrived aboard United Airlines flight 534. Airport Police and U.S. Army honor guards also greeted the plane, which was saluted with water cannon arches.

"I'm still his wife," Clara Gantt said as she stood on the tarmac alongside the aircraft, close to 65 years after she and Joseph Gantt last said goodbye.     She recalled their final conversation.     "He told me, if anything happened to him, he wanted me to re-marry," Clara Gantt said.

She told her husband, "You had a hard time getting me to say yes."

"Here I am, still his wife and will remain his wife until the Lord calls me home," she said.

Gantt was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star with Valor medal for his service. He has also received a host of other military honors, including a World War II Victory Medal, Purple Heart, Combat Infantry Badge, National Defense Service Medal and Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.

-- City News Service


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from South Gate-Lynwood