MOULTON, Ala. (WHNT) — After more than 80 years after Private Mack Kidd was killed fighting Japanese troops, he will be laid to rest in North Alabama.
Pvt. Kidd’s granddaughters brought his remains back to the Lawrence Funeral Home Thursday, along with hundreds of others.
Japanese troops killed West Virginia native Pvt. Kidd in action on July 12, 1944, during World War 2. He was fighting in Merrill’s Marauders in the forests of Burma. His remains sat unidentified overseas for nearly a century, until a phone call that changed everything.
“We always knew our grandfather was missing,” Pvt. Kidd’s granddaughter, Melinda Cleghorn, said. “The army called in February to inform us that they had identified his body. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought it was a scam.”
He died when he was only 20 years old, leaving behind his wife, a nearly 2-year-old son and a 6-month-old daughter. That baby grew up to have children of her own. Cleghorn said her mother lived life heartbroken after losing her dad at such a young age.
“She was upset,” Cleghorn said. “I think she stayed upset her entire life over it. I think it was really traumatic growing up without her dad.”
Now Cleghorn and her sisters have the opportunity to mend their mother’s broken heart. They plan to bury Pvt. Kidd’s remains next to their mother’s grave in Friendship Cemetery.
“I hope this brings peace to our mother and helps her rest,” Cleghorn said.
The family traveled alongside the American Legion on Thursday to pick up Pvt. Kidd’s remains in Nashville. During their entire journey back to Moulton, they were met with police escorts, civilian escorts and folks lining the street while waving American flags to show their support.
American Legion Post 25 Commander Phil Terry said the POW/MIA message is that no soldier is forgotten. He and his fellow American Legion members wanted to ensure Pvt. Kidd knew that message and felt it all these years later.
“It makes it special to us as veterans,” Terry said. “Probably the worst thing a veteran could feel is to realize that they would be forgotten. We don’t need to be forgotten. We take that very seriously.”
Nearly 200 vehicles followed the family and Pvt. Kidd as they turned into the Lawrence Funeral Home and filled the visitation room to pay their respects.
“The love and support that we felt was just unreal,” Pvt. Kidd’s great-granddaughter Amanda Black said. “We never imagined anything like this.”
Timothy Dempsey served in the Army for over 30 years. He said he changed his plans to make sure he could be at there to welcome Pvt. Kidd home.
“That’s something you wanna be a part of,” Dempsey said. “It’s a great honor to be here. He’s a young man, lost everything, and this is my way of saying thank you, sir.”
Due to the time period and Pvt. Kidd’s tragically young death, his surviving family said there’s not much of a paper trail to learn about his life. But through this process, they’ve gotten pieces of his story that they’re eternally grateful for.
“Everything’s just been an emotional rollercoaster,” Pvt. Kidd’s granddaughter Melanie Wilhelm said. “I mean, it’s like we’re finally getting to know a little bit about him, but it’s just from pieces of history we can find or talking to, you know, some of the family members, but there’s not very many of them left.”
Now that Pvt. Kidd is back on the soil he sacrificed everything for, generations of hearts can be at peace.
He will be laid to rest with full military honors in a graveside service Saturday at the Friendship Cemetery in Danville.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
