“Welcome home” was the theme that reverberated through the streets of Princeton Saturday as Lance Cpl. Donald W. Mitchell was buried in his hometown — more than 37 years after his death in the Vietnam war.
“Welcome home to Princeton, Ky. — welcome home,” said Rev. Jeff French as he glanced at the flag-draped coffin at Morgan’s Funeral Home.
“Donnie Mitchell has returned home,” said family spokesman Mitchell Scott. Noting that he was born after his uncle’s death, Scott said the day “is purely a celebration and relief. The wait is over, the question surrounding Donnie’s life has been erased, and Donnie’s simple wish to return home has finally manifested itself.”
Mitchell’s remains were recovered along with remains of 11 other servicemen who lost their lives in May 1968 in Vietnam. It’s the largest single group of MIAs identified since the Vietnam War, the Defense Department said.
The soldiers were killed May 9, 1968, during a 10-hour battle on a football field-sized area along the Laotian border in South Vietnam. They were part of an artillery platoon airlifted in to support a unit that was at risk of an attack from nearby North Vietnamese forces.
Several investigations and excavations that began in 1993 led to the recovery. Former Vietnamese soldiers and American survivors helped investigators narrow their search to three excavations in the late 1990s before finally recovering the remains and other personal materials. Since then, they have been working to identify the remains using DNA and other forensic tools.
“In Donnie’s letters home, he counted down the days when he would return to his native soil, escape from the battlefield and pursue a life outside of maneuvers, engagements and death — a life longed for by any 20-year-old who finds himself carrying a gun on foreign soil. Thirty-seven years later that day has finally arrived,” said Scott.
“These years have been difficult for my grandmother and mother, who lost an only son and an only brother. What my grandmother, Marjorie Mitchell, has been forced to cope with — not only the loss of her son but an almost four decade wait for the final events of Donnie’s life to be explained and for him to return home — was a difficult task.
Not only was there an overflow crowd at the funeral service, but a lengthy procession followed to Cedar Hill Cemetery. Along the way, townspeople stood on street corners and paid homage to the fallen soldier. A block from the cemetery, about 50 townspeople — including Mayor Vickie Hughes — gathered on both sides of the street, most with hands over their hearts, all waving large American flags provided by the city.
On the hillside at the cemetery, family, friends, townspeople, several Vietnam veterans groups and a delegation of Marines paid their final respects.
In Scott’s remarks to the press, he said the family credits former President Bill Clinton “for taking the initiative to end the 19-year embargo with the Republic of Vietnam and his initiative to resolve the cases of the Vietnam POWs/MIAs.”
He also cited the Vietnam Veterans of America for their instrumental role in supporting Clinton’s end of the embargo and their influence on the government and military “to bring lost soldiers home.
“We also thank the countless men and women of the Joint POW/MIA Command who excavated Ngok Tavak and worked the case of Donald W. Mitchell.”
He added a word of encouragement for families of veterans whose status is MIA or POW. “We hope that your fallen son or daughter, father or mother, sister or brother, will one day return to you as Donnie has to us.”
In Scott’s remarks to the media, he said the family’s only regret is that Mitchell’s father, the late Herman Mitchell, was not there to see his son return home. “Throughout Herman’s life he took great pride in flying the American flag in the front lawn of their home, as well as the POW/MIA flag that bears the inscription, ‘You are not forgotten.’”
In addition to the Saturday service, a ceremonial group burial for the 12 soldiers, including Mitchell, has been arranged by the Pentagon Oct. 11 at Arlington National Cemetery.
