The remains of a U.S. Army private killed in the Korean War, and whose remains were buried among unknown soldiers for seven decades, will be returned to the U.S. Tuesday, with Inland Empire residents invited to pay tribute to him by lining the route the hearse will take from Ontario International Airport to the funeral home in Calimesa.
Jack McWilliam Cash of Washington state was attached to A Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division when he was killed with fellow soldiers on Aug. 31, 1950, during the Second Battle of Naktong Bulge.
Cash and his fellow infantrymen were ordered to defend the eastern shore of the Naktong River, near Yongsan, South Korea, as North Korean People’s Army troops made a push across the peninsula, seeking to scatter United Nations forces.
Cash’s unit was overrun, and he was killed during the large-scale offensive, according to the U.S. Army.
The American Graves Registration Service Group said that, the following year, remains of a serviceman were recovered near the site of the engagement, but the condition of the body made it impossible to confirm identification.
The remains were entombed with other unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
In 2024, efforts by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to continue identifying unknown service members who died in the Korean War netted results when DNA from Cash’s brother returned a positive identification during analysis of fallen soldiers’ remains at the agency’s laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, officials said.
“He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific,” according to a Department of Defense statement. “His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022.”
The family intends to have Cash buried at Desert Lawn Memorial Park in the Banning Pass.
According to the nonprofit organization Honoring Our Fallen, the coffin bearing Cash’s remains is slated to arrive at Ontario International Airport around noon Tuesday, then transported from the airport via eastbound Interstate 10 to Calimesa.
The route will entail leaving the freeway via Exit 90 in Cherry Valley, then turning onto Tukwet Canyon Parkway before a final turn onto Desert Lawn Drive, ending at Desert Lawn Funeral Home & Memorial Park.
The interment will be private.