RHODY LIFE

Never able to come home

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The are few things worse than a soldier returning home to be buried, one of which is the soldier never returning home at all.

Paul Baron was a restaurant cook who lived with his wife, Julia, and their two children in Warwick. Their son John was born in 1929 and attended Gorton High School. After graduation, he was employed at the Apponaug Bleachery for three years before deciding to join the U.S. military.

In Apponaug, on Jan. 28, 1948, he enlisted in the Army. When the Korean War broke out, he was sent overseas to be stationed in Japan. As an infantryman with the 21st Infantry Regiment, he was given orders to go to Korea, where he arrived on July 5, 1950. There, he served with the Headquarter Company in the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Division.

Attached to an infantry regiment which was protecting an air strip, he was placed in a defense position near Chochiwon, South Korea. When the area was attacked by North Korean forces on July 11, his outfit withdrew until they could obtain additional artillery. The Defense Department later reported that Baron had been missing in action since July 12. His parents, who had received their last letter from him dated July 1, were informed of his status.

In December of 1951, a transmission from Tokyo to the Pentagon listed the names of American prisoners of war being held captive in Korea. The list did not include the names of Baron or 11 other Rhode Island men who were missing.

Two years later, his parents received a letter from the Adjutant General’s Department stating that Baron had died in a North Korean prison camp of malnutrition on Jan. 25, 1951. Another report provided the same date of death but stated that he had been marched to Apex Prison Camp in North Korea after his capture and that, while later marching toward another location, he was overcome with the effects of pneumonia and exhaustion and expired along the journey. Allegedly, he was buried at the spot where he fell.

Twenty-two-year-old Paul Baron never got to experience a hero’s welcome back. His remains were not saluted as they were being carried to a cemetery in a flag-draped casket. His family was given no burial place in which to mourn. The body of Paul Baron was never recovered. Like too many other brave men who put their patriotic duty over their own lives, he never got to come home.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.

soldiers, burial

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