SAN ANTONIO - On a day with so many homecomings, perhaps none was more overdue than the homecoming of Jimmie Gaitan.
It's been more than sixty years.
"It's been an emotional whirlwind," said his nephew, Manuel Adams, while waiting at the San Antonio International Airport.
But for Gaitan’s family this was not so much a welcome as a goodbye.
Private First Class Giatan died in 1951 as Prisoner of War in North Korea. He had been captured while tending to his injured comrades during a battle in South Korea. Giatan, an Army Medic, was 21-years-old.
Wednesday, with full military honors, his remains were flown to San Antonio.
"He was something else,” said Adams. “To be only twenty something years old and to do what he did in some of the dog-gone coldest winters in history up there in Korea is amazing."
Adams, who was born a year after his uncle died, has spent the past twenty years trying to find his remains.
He said he has always wanted to bring his mother closure.
Wednesday, he did.
His tearful mother, 82-year-old Ruth Adams explained why this was so important to her.
“For me, it's that my mom is now so happy that her son in with her and that he is resting in peace with her," she said.
Adams, along with her two sisters, Angie Gaitan and Eloise Gaitan-Horne, said they made a promise to their mother when she died to bring their brother home.
Twenty-two years after her death they made good on their promise – thanks in large part to a missing tooth.
"I call it the notorious tooth number 18,” said Manuel Adams. “He was missing tooth number 18 and that was one of the factors."
Giatan's body was returned to the United States decades ago, but was never identified until the connection to the missing tooth.
It may have taken longer than his family ever expected, but Jimmie Gaitan finally came home.
