Images: Walter A. Smead, Saratoga County resident killed in Korean War, laid to rest 70 years later (23 photos)

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

Members of Army National Guard Honor Guard carry the casket of Walter Smead for his committal service Monday.

SARATOGA NATIONAL CEMETERY – Corporal Walter A. Smead was laid to rest Monday at Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery, 70 years after he was killed in the Korean War.

Smead, then 24, went missing as a private during savage fighting in bitter cold weather around the Chosin Reservoir, in what is now North Korea, Dec. 6, 1950, in the early months of the war. He was posthumously promoted to corporal.

His remains were finally identified earlier this year through a DNA match. They were among those returned by North Korea in the wake of the Donald Trump/Kim Jong-un summit in Singapore in 2018.

On Monday, Smead’s brother, Walter Smead, and his sister Harriet Eggleston, watched as their brother was laid to rest.

More on Smead’s life and the identification of his remains: Remains of Saratoga County man killed in Korean War identified after 70 years

Images from Monday’s committal service, photos from our Erica Miller

Patriot Guard riders from Region 4 and 5 enter the cemetery. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

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Patriot Guard rider leads the hearse into the cemetery. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

More on Smead’s life and the identification of his remains: Remains of Saratoga County man killed in Korean War identified after 70 years

Members of Army National Guard Honor Guard carry the casket of Walter Smead. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

GAZETTE COVERAGE

Ensure access to everything we do, today and every day, check out our subscribe page at DailyGazette.com/Subscribe

Army National Guard Honor Guard member PFC Charles Dorado plays the TAPs. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

An Army National Guard Honor Guard member hands Douglas Smead and sister Harriet Eggleston flags during the committal service for their brother Walter Smead. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

Major Sgt. Retired US Army Korea/Vietnam Veteran Robert Garland salutes with other Adirondack Chapter 60 Korean War Veterans Association. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

Family members touch the casket during the committal service for Walter Smead. ERICA MILLER/THE DAILY GAZETTE

Photograph of late Walter Alvin Smead, surrounded by his Purple Heart and Ambassador for Peace medals and missing in action letters addressed to family members