The Pittsburgh Press (December 18, 1945)
First war dead to be returned to U.S. in June
House bill orders bodies brought home
By Earl Richert, Scripps-Howard staff writer
WASHINGTON (SHS) – War Department officials said today bodies of our war dead should begin arriving in the U.S. by next June.
This forecast followed passage by the House of a bill authorizing the Secretary of War to return the bodies in accordance with wishes of the next of kin.
The War Department hopes to have most of the bodies home within two years after the start of the program. But officials say it may take up to four or five years to get them all back.
A spokesman said individual inquiries to determine the wishes of the next of kin would be started within 60 days after Senate passage of the bill, probably late in January.
North Africa dead first
Present plans are to go by war theaters, starting with North Africa and continuing in order. The same policy will be followed in the Pacific.
It is estimated that approximately 300,000 bodies, including civilian dead, will be returned. The bill authorizes the government to bring back bodies of civilians who died while aiding in the war.
Requests of next of kin who want their overseas dead to be left in present graves will be honored. But this number is expected to be small.
Most want bodies home
Of the 60,000 persons who already have written the War Department on the subject, only 104 have asked that their dead be left undisturbed. More than 20 percent want their dead buried in national cemeteries if nearby cemeteries are available.
The War Department’s bill providing for construction of 79 new national cemeteries, one or more in each state, has passed the Senate and is now pending in the House.
The Cemetery Bill was based on an estimate that 16⅔ percent of our veterans would prefer to be buried in national cemeteries, if such cemeteries were within a reasonable distance of their homes.
Most of the next of kind who already have written the War Department, however, want the bodies returned to hometown cemeteries. This will be done with the bodies being delivered to the families at the hometown railway stations under Army escort.
$50 burial allowance
Families desiring hometown burials will have to pay the burial cost above a $50 allowance by the government.
The War Department estimates it will cost the government $700 to return a body. Licensed U.S. embalmers will be sent overseas for the task.