The remains of Army Pfc. Glenn E. Collins, who was killed at the age of 21 in the Korean War, will be buried at South Lawn Cemetery on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
The graveside service will begin at 11 a.m. at 5401 S. Park Ave.
In an interview last year after Collinsโ remains were identified in April, sisters LaWanda Brothers and Kathern Ballentine said they were relieved that their brother was coming home to be laid to rest.
Collins will be buried where his parents and more than 80 relatives are interred.
โWe have prayed and cried for 70 years, and now he will be coming home,โ said Brothers last year. She and Ballentine are the remaining survivors of Collinsโ immediate family.
โHe was a wonderful brother who helped take care of the family when my parents were at work. Our dad was working at Edwards Air Force Base, and our mom worked at a cannery,โ said Brothers, who was 13 when Collins, 19, enlisted in the Army in California. She said Collins was born in Marshall, Texas, and the family moved to Tucson and then to Tranquility, California, because their father worked construction jobs. The family eventually returned to Tucson and remained.
Collins was reported missing in action Dec. 2, 1950, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. He was a member of Heavy Mortar Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division.
Specific details about Collinsโ death were unknown at the time, but later it was learned that Collins was killed during the attack. His remains were not found or recovered after the battle, officials said.
Later, his remains were recovered from a mass burial site in an area where Collinsโ unit had fought the Chinese forces, according to state government records.
In 2018, remains of American service members killed during the Korean War were turned over by North Korean officials, and Collinsโ remains were identified by scientists using evidence, including DNA.
