Remains of Korean War veteran to be buried Wednesday at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery

Pfc. Bryan Myers Jr. died fighting in the early months of the Korean War, and his remains had been a mystery until a few weeks ago.

More than 73 years after his death, Myers’ skeletal remains were identified with the help of DNA from a brother. He will be buried Wednesday in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood after a service at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home in Joliet.

His remains were flown into O’Hare International Airport on Thursday, May 23 and it was a moving experience for the family members who were there.

“I did pretty good,” Myers’ sister, Barbara Lee Cerney of Shorewood, said of her ability to control her emotions at the airport. “But when that plane came in and that casket came out wrapped in the American flag, I knew who it was, and I lost it. We were a close family.”

They grew up on a farm near Cobden, a small town in southern Illinois.

Myers was the oldest of five children. He enlisted in the Army in 1948 at the age of 19.

“He was up to here with farm work. He hated it,” Lee Cerney said. “He wanted to get off the farm, and he loved the service.”

Lee Cerney was 17 when her brother enlisted.

Lee Cerney and other family members had never expected to see her brother’s remains again after he lost his life in a war in which the bodies of dead soldiers often could not be returned home.

“The fighting was so fierce,” Lee Cerney said. “They just buried them there. If they did, they put up a big tarp, and they put them in a big hole.”

Myers, a heavy weapons infantryman, died Sept. 5, 1950, as the Army tried to hold positions along the Nam and Naktong rivers in the early months of the Korean War, when communist forces had taken over much of South Korea.

He died fighting to preserve the free nation of South Korea as the U.S. in the aftermath of World War II fought to foster democracy. He was among 37,000 American soldiers to lose their lives in the Korean War.

But Myers’ death was much more personal for his family back home.

“We were all devastated,” Lee Cerney said.

Beyond that, they did not know what had happened to Myers until a close friend who was with him in the battle visited the family farm a few years later. They learned of the circumstances of Myers’ death, but they did not know where his body was and had no expectations that he would be brought home.

Still, Lee Cerney said, although the Army had no answers in the ensuing decades, “they kept trying.”

“He’s here now. He’s back in the United States. I’m just thankful, and my family is thankful.”

—  Barbara Lee Cerney, sister of Pfc. Bryan Myers Jr.

Myers’ remains were among many that the Army has moved to Japan and then Hawaii as it tries to identify soldiers listed as missing in action in the Korean War. That was Myers’ status until he was identified.

Lee Cerney had previously established a MIA burial site for her brother at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, where her husband, William Cerney Sr., a Navy veteran and a former Shorewood village trustee, is buried.

Myers’ return to Illinois “was beautiful,” said William Cerney Jr. of Joliet, who joined his mother and other family members at O’Hare. “The way they brought the body out. The police department and the fire department were there. Everyone was escorting us everywhere we went. The state police escorted us from O’Hare all the way to Joliet.”

Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle organization that honors veterans, also was part of the procession to Joliet, which William Cerney estimated to be a half-mile long.

Alexander Olson, a casualty assistance officer with the Illinois Army National Guard Casualty Operation, has been with the family throughout the process of receiving Myers’ remains. He drove them to O’Hare and back and will be with them for the burial services Wednesday.

The local family includes Vickie Perona, Barbara Lee Cerney’s daughter, and her husband John. They live in Braidwood.

“It would be nice for everyone to experience this to see what our government is doing that is good,” John Perona said of the successful identification of Bryan Myers Jr.’s remains and the way the family has been treated by the Army. “They never gave up on him.”

Vickie Perona said that although she spent time during her childhood at the family farm and was aware of Bryan Myers Jr., he was not talked about much years after his death.

“I never got to meet him until yesterday,” Vickie said, referring to the return of his remains.

Myers’ parents have passed away. So have two of his brothers, Donald and Harold. One brother, Bobby, still lives in Cobden. All her brothers served in the military, Lee Cerney said.

Myers was brought to Joliet so he could be buried in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, where his burial will be accompanied with full military honors. Services will be from 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home, 3200 Black Road. The Joliet Police Department will provide an escort from the funeral home to the cemetery.

“He’s here now. He’s back in the United States,” Lee Cerney said of her brother. “I’m just thankful, and my family is thankful.”