U.S. welcomes home Sgt. Richard Bean

Another soldier returned to his family from war on Oct. 3. Sgt. Richard Bean enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1942 he was among the first U.S. forces sent into the Pacific theater with the 105th Infantry Regiment. Army Sgt. Richard Bean, 24 years old, was killed and went missing during the largest Japanese Banzai attack of the war on Saipan on July 7, 1944. He was declared dead by the Army three years later with a posthumous promotion from private first class to sergeant and the awards of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Sgt. Bean would remain missing for 70 years.

Although the family accepted that Sgt. Bean had been killed, they had no remains or personal property to honor and remember him by. A photo of Sgt. Bean in uniform after his enlistment hung on a wall in the Manassas, Virginia, family home with his Purple Heart attached to the frame. His nephew and namesake 65-year-old Richard Bean only knew his uncle from family stories and that picture. Until now.

Last year a team of young Japanese searching battle sites for Japanese war dead uncovered an American soldier's remains, personal items and his dog tags. The Bean family was notified in September 2013 by the Japanese searchers that Sgt. Bean had been found, and his identification was later confirmed by the U.S. Army. Along with the remains, nephew Richard Bean received items found at the site. These included a razor, a shaving kit, a pocket knife, a dagger, a 1909 wheat penny, a pair of boot soles, an Army ring, a Japanese brooch, a Detroit-made cigarette box with an "R" carved into the side and a fountain pen that is assumed to have been used to write letters home.

Sgt. Bean was escorted to his grave site at Quantico National Cemetery by the motorcycle riders of the Patriot Guard Riders. Those riders also held a line of U.S. flags at the internment. Family, friends, strangers and veterans of several wars attended, paid their respects, and welcomed home a soldier.

Welcome home, Sgt. Bean.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He resides in Chaffee, Missouri.