The official U.S. Army photograph of 1st Lt. Thomas Redgate shows a smiling 24-year-old, a service cap crowning his head, a tan tie and shirt underneath his dress uniform. He was a Brighton boy gone off to fight in Korea.
He never came home during that war, but his remains finally were flown to Boston on Tuesday — more than seven decades later — fulfilling a wish that his mother held on to until the day she died in 1970. Her son will be interred Friday afternoon in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.
And Redgate’s name will, finally, be removed from a memorial there to members of the military who were declared missing in action.
Redgate enlisted as a private in the Enlisted Reserve Corps and was called to active duty in April 1944. He was an airplane and engine mechanic until his honorable discharge in November 1945.
Redgate reenlisted in 1948. He was a member of Battery A, 48th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. His unit was on the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea when they were attacked by Chinese and North Korean forces on Nov. 27, 1950.
U.S. military leaders were confident that troops would reach China’s border, retaking the whole Korean peninsula by Christmas. But the Battle at Chosin Reservoir turned the tide of the war in North Korea’s favor. Chinese troops outnumbered and surrounded U.S. forces at Chosin. Fighting in frigid temperatures, in mountainous terrain, with even their retreats blocked, U.S. troops were nearly annihilated, according to the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Korea website.
The Battle of Chosin left 1,029 U.S. troops dead, 4,582 wounded and 4,894 missing, according to the website.
Redgate was pronounced missing on Dec. 11, 1950. The Army declared him presumptively dead in 1953.
It wasn’t until April 16, 2020 — almost 70 years after he went missing in action — that his remains were identified by analysts with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in Hawaii.
Korean War soldiers’ remains returned to the US
Redgate’s remains were included in the 55 boxes of remains that North Korea returned to the U.S. in 2018 after a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. There have been no further reclamation efforts on the part of North Korea.
The remains of thousands of U.S. troops still lay scattered throughout North Korea. According to the DPAA, 7,555 US troops are still unaccounted for; 5,729 of that number are Army troops.
A hero’s welcome
Redgate’s casketed remains finally came home to Boston on Tuesday. Some of Redgate’s extended family members were on hand for the arrival at Boston Logan International Airport.
Peter Bloniarz, Redgate’s oldest nephew and the family member recognized by Army protocol as the lead family representative, called it an honor to welcome his uncle home.
“For us, it’s a privilege to be able to do something our parents couldn’t do,” he said. “Imagine losing your youngest son. It was a black hole for the family.”
A seven-member Army Military Funeral Honors team was at Logan airport to carry out a dignified transfer.
Two soldiers in battle-dress uniform went into the belly of the plane, prepared the casket, draped an American flag over it and removed it from the hold, according to team member Sgt. Jeffrey Hyde.
“Being in casualty operations, it’s the honor of my life to assist families of the fallen,” he said.
The team placed the casket in a hearse and, accompanied by a motorcade, Redgate’s remains were taken for one final ride through his old neighborhoods. Led by the Massachusetts State Police, the motorcade included members of the Boston Police and Rolling Thunder, a group advocating for the full accounting of U.S. prisoners of war and those missing in action, according to nephew Andrew Redgate
The motorcade stopped at a family home at 395 Bunker Hill St. in Charlestown, Heroes Square in Brighton and 27 Mapleton St. in Brighton, where Redgate had grown up.
Andrew Redgate said in a phone call that people were at each location, paying their respects and waving flags. The Bunker Hill home was the location of many family reunions.
“There must have been 400 people in front of the house,” Andrew Redgate said.
They included firefighters, police officers, military personnel, Korean War veterans, families and toddlers. Traffic was blocked off. “It couldn’t have been more touching,” Andrew Redgate said.
From there, the motorcade went to Heroes Square in Brighton, then down Mapleton Street past Thomas Redgate’s family’s home. There were well-wishers at each stop waving flags. Fire engines hung oversized American flags over the roadways. Redgate’s casket was finally brought to Lehman, Reen, McNamara Funeral Home in Brighton.
Members of the Boston University ROTC as well as the Massachusetts Military Honor Guard were scheduled to stand guard during his wake tonight.
‘A significant loss’
Redgate had two brothers, one sister, two nephews and one niece at the time he went missing in action. Irene Bloniarz was the eldest sibling in the family, was married and her son Peter was only 3 years old. Peter Bloniarz doesn’t remember his uncle, but he remembers his mother keeping a photo of him on her bureau.
“It was a significant loss for her,” he said.
His grandmother never gave up hope that Redgate’s remains would eventually be returned. “She held out hope until the day she died,” Bloniarz said.
Fifty-one years after her death in 1970, her wishes have finally been granted.
Andrew Redgate called watching his uncle’s flag-draped coffin received by the military honor guard moving. “It was so solemn,” he said. “To see it conveyed off the plane and transported to the hearse was so surreal. It was a realization that after 70 years he’s home.”
Remembering the MIA
Andrew Redgate remembers his father, Howard, talking about Tommy, calling him a hero, saying the soldiers had no chance at Chosin.
“We are so incredibly fortunate that we received word,” Andrew Redgate said.
He urged people to support MIA families and to support all efforts to identify the remains of individuals still unaccounted for.
“And never forget what Tommy and others have done for this country,” he said. “Fifty million people in the Republic of Korea are able to live wonderful lives because of Tommy and thousands of others.”
First Lt. Redgate is survived by his sister-in-law, Ellen O’Hearn Redgate, and his siblings’ 10 children and their families.
When will Lt. Thomas Redgate be interred?
A Requiem Mass will be held Friday at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church in Chestnut Hill. Interment will be in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne at 2:30 p.m. Friday.
Redgate’s name is currently recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now that he has been accounted for, a rosette will be placed next to his name.
His name will also be removed from the MIA Memorial at the Bourne cemetery.
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