U.S. Army Corporal Alton Christie’s flag-draped casket was returned by a motorcycle-led Honor Guard from the Duval County Sheriff’s Office to his hometown on Tuesday, June 6.
Alton was flown from Hawaii to Jacksonville on June 6, where Harry T. Reid Funeral Home met his plane and returned him to his hometown.
A graveside service with full military honors will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 10, at Evergreen Cemetery in Jasper, Fla.
Your attendance is requested to honor this Veteran for his ultimate sacrifice and in support of his family, which has suffered all of these years not knowing his fate but with faith that he would one day return.
Sadly, Alton’s parents, L.D. Christie and Edith “Dink” Christie, along with his three brothers, Bill Christie, Edward Christie and Howard Christie, would not live to see his return.
With mixed emotions, his surviving brother, Claude Christie, of Pensacola, Fla. and sister, Shirley Lindsey, of Jasper, Fla., along with numerous nieces and nephews, will be standing close by to witness his return and burial at Evergreen Cemetery.
From a press release by the DPAA:
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on Jan. 20, 2023, that U.S. Army Cpl. Alton Christie, 18, of Jasper, Fla., killed during the Korean War, was accounted for on July 28, 2022.
In July 1950, Christie was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 5 after his unit was engaged by the Korean People’s Army near Osan, South Korea. There is no indication his remains were recovered after the battle, and he was never recorded as a prisoner of war. The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953, and his remains were determined to be nonrecoverable in January 1956.
In October 1950, 20 sets of remains were recovered near Osan. Seven were interred as Unknowns. One set of remains, designated X-214 Taejon, was thought to be Christie, but investigators at the Central Identification Unit-Kokura in Japan didn’t have enough identifying data to positively ID the remains. X-214 was later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as an Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In December 2014, Christie’s next of kin contacted the Army and requested the disinterment of X-214 as a potential association with Christie. The remains were disinterred on March 7, 2016, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
To identify Christie’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Christie’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
To send a flower arrangement or to plant trees in memory of Alton Christie, visit www.sympathyfloralstore.com.