<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>I'm still me . . .</div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of the September 17, 1991 edition of the Spokesman-Review.</div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/SR_091791.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/SR_091791.jpg</a></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div><div><br>On Aug 7, 2015, at 5:15 AM, Tom Hansen <<a href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (August 7, 2015) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.2; font-size: 28px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Korean War soldier’s remains flown to Spokane for proper burial</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">U.S. Army Cpl. Donald Therkelsen died 62 years ago, 10 days before the Korean War armistice. The 23-year-old medic died two years after marrying his wife, Patricia, and three months before his daughter, Linda, was born.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Thursday, his remains were flown to Spokane, a place the Illinois native likely never visited. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Yeah, it has been a strange journey, to hear all these things about my grandpa that I’ve never even met,” said Emily Mitchell, Therkelsen’s granddaughter. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Therkelsen went missing on July 17 at the Battle of Kumsong, which was the last major Chinese offensive of the war. Although officially listed as missing in action, several soldiers saw Therkelsen get shot in the back as he tended to an injured soldier. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Because his unit was retreating, they were unable to recover his body, Mitchell said. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In October 1953, Linda, Therkelsen’s daughter, was born. Her mother, Patricia, remarried in 1956 and didn’t tell Linda about her biological father until she was 12. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Patricia and her second husband, George Weisbecker, moved to Spokane in 1985 from Chicago. Patricia died in 2008. Therkelsen’s daughter, Linda Pollock, works for Spokane Public Schools. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Shortly after Therkelsen’s death, one of the soldiers who served with him visited Patricia and told her Therkelsen was dead, despite still being officially listed as missing in action.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think he wanted to give my grandma peace of mind,” Mitchell said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Army called in November to inform the family that Therkelsen’s remains had been found. The family debated what to do with his body, Mitchell said. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They decided it wasn’t appropriate to bury him next to his wife, Patricia. She’s buried next to her second husband. Instead, they plan to bury Therkelsen at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake on Saturday.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The entire experience has been surreal, Mitchell said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“To be honest, I think she’s having a hard time because she doesn’t feel a connection,” Mitchell said of her mother. “We didn’t know him.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Therkelsen’s remains were flown on a Delta flight from Hawaii to Spokane International Airport, where they were met by an Army National Guard Honor Guard. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s just important,” said honor guard member Staff Sgt. Joshua Daly. “It’s a farewell to a fallen hero. They do so much for their country. It’s a little thing you can do to show respect.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Army National Guard Honor Guard members await the transfer of Army Cpl. Donald Therkelsen’s remains from Delta flight 2425 on Thursday at Spokane International Airport.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Army/SR_080715_Thorkelsen_01.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Army/SR_080715_Thorkelsen_01.jpg</a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-----</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Delta Air Lines flight and ground crews pay their respects as the remains are transferred to a waiting honor guard Thursday.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Army/SR_080715_Thorkelsen_02.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Army/SR_080715_Thorkelsen_02.jpg</a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-----</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Army National Guard Honor Guard members pause during a shuttle ride to the tarmac, to reflect on the task at hand of transferring the remains of Army Cpl. Donald Therkelsen on Thursday at the Spokane airport.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Army/SR_080715_Thorkelsen_03.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Army/SR_080715_Thorkelsen_03.jpg</a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------------------------</span></p><h5 style="margin: 0px 0px 3px; overflow: visible !important;"><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Remains returned in early 1990s</span></font></h5><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea sent the United States 208 boxes of human remains. The boxes are believed to have contained the remains of more than 400 U.S. soldiers. U.S. Army Cpl. Donald Therkelsen’s remains were included in the boxes, according to a Department of Defense news release. The remains were identified by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. More than 7,800 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the news release.</span></p></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>Welcome home, Corporal Therkelsen.</div><div><br></div><div>-----</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b><br></b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>"POW/MIA"</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">by Del Jones</span></div><div><font><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"So many fates are left unknown<br>And so many rumors that abound<br>So many families ask the question<br>“When will, the answers be found?”</span></p><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So many years have come and gone<br>Sometimes, hope is hard to keep<br>There’s some who feel there’s none<br>And in some, it’s buried deep.</span></p><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The pain, is in not knowing<br>How, to put loved ones’ to rest<br>When there is no way to prove<br>They have passed the final test.</span></p><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But, no matter what the answers<br>We can’t let this cause alone<br>Until, each and every one of them<br>Is found, and brought back home."</span></p><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-----</span></p><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-style: normal;">When is somebody going to </span><b style="font-style: normal;">GIVE A DAMN</b><span style="font-style: normal;">?</span></span></p></font><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>=======================================================</span><br><span> List services made available by First Step Internet,</span><br><span> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.</span><br><span> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a></span><br><span> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a></span><br><span>=======================================================</span></div></blockquote></div></body></html>