{"id":25767,"date":"2024-09-03T21:24:14","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T03:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/memorial-service-for-missing-soldier-held-almost-74-years-after-his-presumed-death\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:27:20","slug":"memorial-service-for-missing-soldier-held-almost-74-years-after-his-presumed-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/memorial-service-for-missing-soldier-held-almost-74-years-after-his-presumed-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial service for missing soldier held almost 74 years after his presumed death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dennis
Dennis Spruell, a councilmember and former sheriff, accepting the folded flag at his uncle\u2019s memorial service. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Cpl. John Albert Spruell was finally laid to rest on Sept. 3 in the Cortez Cemetery, nearly 74 years after he first left the country to serve in the Korean War.<\/p>\n

Dozens of decorated soldiers, community members and city workers \u2013 the city of Cortez closed its offices for the event \u2013 gathered in the cemetery under the morning sun to celebrate and remember Spruell.<\/p>\n

\"Cpl.
Cpl. John Spruell<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dennis
Dennis Spruell<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At the service, the eulogist quoted Psalm 30:5. \u201cWeeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Spruell was presumed dead on Dec. 6, 1950, 26,546 nights have passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe morning is now!\u201d the eulogist exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Spruell was a junior in high school in Cortez, just 17 years old, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1949. He finished basic training in March 1950, and went for further training at Fort Lawton, Washington. When he was there, the Korean War began.<\/p>\n

It was June 1950, and Spruell was just 19 years old.<\/p>\n

He was first sent to Japan, then Korea. While overseas, he was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division and served in the 57th Field Artillery Battalion.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 6 that year, he was fighting near Chosin Reservoir at Hagaru-ri, North Korea. Temperatures dipped below minus 30 F, and he was presumed dead in combat, though his remains weren\u2019t found \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

Spruell\u2019s mother, Pauline, never gave up hope that her missing son would come home.<\/p>\n

Though he didn\u2019t in her lifetime, they\u2019re now reunited, in a sense: Her ashes will be buried in his casket, beside his bones.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad he\u2019s home and can rest in Cortez,\u201d said his nephew Dennis Spruell, a member of Cortez City Council and former Montezuma County sheriff. \u201cI didn\u2019t know a lot about him, and my dad didn\u2019t speak of him. But I\u2019ve now learned a whole lot about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cpl.
Cpl. John Spruell\u2019s casket. His bones are underneath his uniform, and his mother\u2019s ashes will be placed inside with him. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The journey to bring him home began nearly a decade ago, when the Army was trying to identify unknown soldiers through DNA. They reached out and asked Dennis Spruell to send in a sample.<\/p>\n

It was last August when Spruell was positively identified: 72 years, 8 months and 5 days after he went missing.<\/p>\n

The memorial marker \u201cUnknown X15754\u201d in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu will be replaced with his true name.<\/p>\n

That cemetery is also called the Punchbowl, and it\u2019s for honoring those in the U.S. military who died or went missing in war.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit like the Purple Heart, the oldest military award in America, given to those who are wounded or killed in battle. At the service, Spruell was awarded this honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny is now home \u2013 and this time, he gets a hero\u2019s welcome,\u201d the eulogist said.<\/p>\n

There are still 73,000 soldiers unidentified that have yet to be brought home, said Nancy Thompson, who helps coordinate events like this one. Thompson came from Aurora for the service in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a commitment to honor veterans we\u2019re now finding the remains of,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cWe do it so we can be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson helped with a similar event in Pueblo<\/a> in June for Clifford Harley Strickland of the U.S. Army Air Forces, a WWII prisoner of war whose remains returned to America 82 years after he died.<\/p>\n

As DNA helps identify more of these unknown soldiers, more events like this one will take place, Thompson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing, heartwarming story,\u201d said Vanessa Ruggles, Cpl. Spruell\u2019s niece. \u201cI\u2019m so appreciative of the Army and the work they do to bring people home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A spread under a tent manned by Thompson and another volunteer. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cpl. John Spruell was declared MIA in the Korean War. His remains were recently identified and brought home to rest in Cortez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,1429,28,29,2658],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-city-council","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-united-states-of-america"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79088,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767\/revisions\/79088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25767"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}