Two Fallen Western Pa. Soldiers Finally Make Their Way Home From Germany, Korea

When Sally Gaydosh got the call that the remains of her brother, Pfc. John Walko, had been identified after more than 80 years since his battlefield death in Germany, she had mixed emotions.

She was happy he was coming home but somewhat sad that it finally confirmed his death.

“It was just amazing, and when they explained everything to us, it became very, very real,” Gaydosh said.

She and her family met the returning flag-draped casket at Pittsburgh International Airport on May 15, 2026, a week before Memorial Day. A military honor guard loaded the casket from the plane into the airport’s honor cart for transport off the airfield.

“When my brother was drafted, he cried at the dinner table when my mother was praying. He said, ‘Mum, I’m afraid I won’t come back,’” Gaydosh said.

Walko, an Army private first class from Commodore, Pa., was killed during fighting in Germany in 1944, a year after he was drafted. For decades, he was listed as missing in action before his remains were identified last summer through modern forensic and military recovery efforts.

In 1944, Walko was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. He was reportedly killed in action on Oct. 20 after his company encountered enemy fire in Aachen, Germany. His remains were not accounted for after the war.

In November 1944, the American Graves Registration Command at the United States Military Cemetery Henri-Chapelle, Netherlands, processed a set of unknown remains, later designated X-99 Henri-Chapelle, belonging to an individual killed by mortar fire on Oct. 20, 1944. Due to the condition of the remains, they were unable to be positively identified at the time and were reinterred at USMC Henri-Chapelle.

In July 2023, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed X-99 Henri-Chepelle and transferred them to the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) Laboratory for analysis.

Walko’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an ABMC site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. Walko will be buried in Indiana, Pa., on May 20, 2026, alongside his parents.

Killed in Korea, the remains of Charles Carroll Jr. arrived at PIT last week

After 75 years, Corporal Charles L. Carroll Jr. arrived home in Pittsburgh to a military honor guard at Pittsburgh International Airport.

According to his family obituary, rather than finish high school, in the Fall of 1949, Carroll enlisted in the Army, serving in B Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was eventually sent to Korea.

He was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, during a major battle near the Jangjin (Chosin) Reservoir, North Korea. The U.S. Army issued a presumptive finding of death for Carroll on Dec. 31, 1953.

The family learned that North Korea returned remains believed to be those of American service members in 1954, including one set designated as Unknown X-15841. These remains, reportedly recovered from the east side of the Chosin Reservoir, were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu known as The Punch Bowl.

On May 16, 2022, as part of Phase Four of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, X-15841 was disinterred and accessioned into a DPAA Laboratory for analysis. There, scientists used modern forensic techniques including the DNA donated by his sister and niece, to identify Carroll in August 2025.

Carroll will be buried next week in Pittsburgh alongside his mother.