MILBRIDGE — Cpl. Oscar Sprague’s four surviving sisters sat stoically in a single row near his flag-draped casket, three generations of their family behind them. 

They had waited 75 years for this moment, unsure if the opportunity to say goodbye to the brother they lost during the Korean War would ever come.

Most of the family members gathered at Evergreen Cemetery on Wednesday never met Sprague, who left this small Washington County town in 1948 to serve his country. He was reported missing in action during an intense battle in South Korea on Sept. 3, 1950. The Army later said he was killed in action and couldn’t find his body.

The family never stopped hoping that, someday, they’d be able to bring him back to Milbridge. His parents and many of his siblings had died waiting for news.

Sprague’s remains, which were recovered a year after he died, were finally identified this spring.

More than 36,000 American troops died during the Korean War, and more than 7,400 remain unaccounted for, including 44 people from Maine, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The effort in recent years to identify unknown service members using new DNA technology and samples provided by family members of the missing has allowed the agency to identify more than 1,200 people killed during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Seventy-five years to the day after he died, Sprague was buried alongside his parents and brother.

“It’s nice knowing he’s back home,” Bernice Thompson, his oldest surviving sister, now in her 90s, said Wednesday after a service that highlighted the heroism of a man who wanted nothing more than to serve his country.

For Thompson and her sisters, the day brought a mix of joy and grief. They thought of their late parents, who always believed that somehow Sprague had survived.

“We want other families to know to not give up hope,” said Melissa Jean, one of Sprague’s nieces. “There’s always hope that they could find your loved one.”

CALLED TO SERVE

Oscar Linwood Sprague was born in Milbridge on Oct. 5, 1927, the second of Clifford and Phyllis Sprague’s 11 children. He was known as a jokester who loved to play pranks and was liked by everyone who knew him, his family said.

“His older sister said he was a very friendly person,” according to his niece Phyllis Seavey, of Steuben, who never met her uncle.

In October 1942, the 15-year-old felt so compelled to serve his country that he lied about his age to enlist.

“He was dedicated, and he wanted to serve,” Seavey said.

It took five months for the Army to realize he was too young and honorably discharge him with instructions to come back when he was old enough.

Sprague reenlisted on Feb. 13, 1948, and was assigned to Company H, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, the first unit to reach Korea directly from the United States after the North Korean army invaded the south in June 1950, according to details from declassified battle records from the National Archives and other sources compiled by American Legion Post 8 Adjunct Peter Duston.

Sprague, then 22, and a small group of soldiers were near Yongsan on Aug. 31 when North Korean troops penetrated their lines, cut them off from the rest of their unit and surrounded them, the archived records state.

For four days, they held strong as they came under heavy machine gun fire and frenzied, hostile attacks, according to military records. They were low on ammunition and food rations, and their only source of water was the morning dew that collected on their guns and grass.

“In spite of these adversaries, Pvt. Sprague was constantly in the midst of every fight and aided in beating off the determined enemy attacks throughout this trying period,” reads a 1962 order awarding him a Bronze Star. “His unfailing determination and fortitude were a constant source of inspiration for his comrades and contributed greatly to sturdy defense of the perimeter.”

He was posthumously promoted to corporal and awarded the Bronze Star with valor, a Purple Heart, a Good Conduct Medal with Bronze Star attachment, a Combat Infantry Badge, a United Nations Service Medal and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

The news that Sprague was missing in action brought years of grief to his parents and siblings, including one who was born a month after Sprague enlisted and never got to meet his older brother.

“My grandparents were devastated,” said Sprague’s niece Alice Tucker, who remembers always looking at the photo of her uncle hanging on the wall of her grandparents’ house.

Jean remembers her grandparents would touch the photo when they walked past. They’d watch out the large picture window, hoping to see him walk across the bridge toward the house, she said.

“Every night, my grandmother would say, ‘Well, Clifford, if not today, then maybe tomorrow Oscar will come across the bridge,’” Jean said.

Clifford Sprague died in 1987 at the age of 82. Phyllis Sprague lived to 98, always hoping that her son would come home.

“She believed until her dying days that he was still alive,” said Susan Kocincki, Sprague’s niece.

In 2009, Kocincki told her father that she wanted to find Oscar. He rolled his eyes, she said, believing it was impossible. But Kocincki was undeterred.

She reached out to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and a year later, the agency collected DNA samples from Sprague’s brother and sister.

For years, the family heard nothing.

Then, in April, the call the family had been waiting on for more than seven decades came: Oscar Sprague had been identified.

FINDING OSCAR

In 2019, the DPAA disinterred the remains of 652 unknown Korean War service members from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific — commonly called the Punchbowl — in Honolulu as part of a plan to identify them using DNA analysis.

The remains of “Unknown X-14851” had been found in a shallow grave in the Naktong region on Sept. 11, 1951, and eventually taken to Honolulu.

Scientists at the DPAA laboratory and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used dental, anthropological and isotope analysis, along with chest radiograph and circumstantial evidence, DNA analysis and mitochondrial genome sequencing data, to identify Sprague on April 23.

“My mom and I cried the day she got the call,” said niece Alice Tucker. “We never thought we would know that he was found, identified and coming home. Our hearts are just so blessed.”

On Aug. 29, three of Sprague’s nieces went to Boston to bring him home to Milbridge. Kocincki was speechless as they stood on the airport tarmac and watched as soldiers brought the casket off the plane.

“It was overwhelming,” she said. “I broke down.”

Together, the nieces and the uncle they never knew rode nearly 300 miles home to Milbridge. On nearly every highway overpass along their way, first responders and veterans stood to welcome home the fallen soldier, flags waving and flashing lights cutting through the darkness.

COMING HOME

On Wednesday, Sprague’s four surviving sisters — Bernice Thompson, Betty Vance, Charlene Seavey and Shirley Thompson — greeted dozens of family and community members who came to the small funeral home on Main Street in Milbridge.

Photos of Sprague as a boy and a young soldier were hung around the room, and his medals sat on display near his sisters at the front of the room. Visitors slipped green bracelets printed with “Sprague Strong” onto their wrists.

“A lot of people would say this is so sad. It’s not sad,” said Jean, Sprague’s niece. “We’re rejoicing because he’s able to finally be home.”

Before a procession to the cemetery, representatives from the Maine National Guard, Sen. Susan Collins’ office and the Maine Legislature spoke about Sprague’s heroism and accomplishments. His medals and a flag meant to be flown daily in his honor were presented to his sisters by members of the Maine National Guard.

“Although 75 years have passed since this true American hero gave his life and freedom in Korea, we remain in awe of his courage, sacrifice and his devotion to duty,” Collins said in written remarks read by staff member Ed Ford.

At Evergreen Cemetery, six members of the Army Honor Guard stood at attention before carrying Sprague’s casket to his final resting spot. His family sat close by, some holding small American flags. They were surrounded by dozens of veterans who came to pay their respects to a member of the Greatest Generation.

They watched solemnly as the Honor Guard raised their rifles toward the sky and fired three shots, the sharp bangs echoing over the silent cemetery, before another raised his horn to play “Taps.”

After Bernice Thompson was presented with a folded flag and people began to trickle out of the cemetery, she reflected on what her parents would think of this moment.

“We’ve been waiting a long, long time to find him and bring him home,” she said. “If only Mom and Dad could be here to see. They’d love it.”