http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/17485439.htm

Copley Twp. sister of Nick Di Salvo, born 77 years ago today, is pleased by homecoming, end of waiting

By Jim Carney

Beacon Journal staff writer

CLEVELAND - Dark clouds turned into a July downpour as the plane carrying the remains of Marine Pfc. Domenico ``Nick'' S. Di Salvo -- killed nearly six decades ago in Korea -- touched down here Wednesday.

His sister, 72-year-old Sally Pier of Copley Township, said the storm that marked her brother's homecoming ``was opening from heaven.''

Services for the 20-year-old Akron Marine, missing in action since Dec. 2, 1950, will be held today, the day he would have turned 77.

The rain that came with the arrival of the plane Wednesday, Pier said, ``was my brother letting us know he was here.''

An honor guard of Marines, based at Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, a Marine Reserve unit on Dan Street in Akron, carried the casket of Di Salvo from the United Airlines commercial aircraft to a Kucko-Anthony-Kertesz Funeral Home hearse waiting nearby on the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport tarmac.

The hearse and a police escort then traveled to the funeral home at 95 W. Waterloo Road in South Akron, where calling hours will begin at 10 a.m. today with services to follow at 12:15 p.m. Burial will be at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

Pier said even though she has known for decades that her brother was killed in the war -- he was declared dead three years after he was declared missing in action -- the arrival of the plane and viewing of his casket were highly charged with emotion.

``The years of waiting, knowing he was dead'' were difficult for the family, she said.

But the final homecoming of her brother, she said, was proof that ``prayers are answered.''

Di Salvo left Garfield High School before graduating and served in the Army. He later joined the Marine Reserves and was called to active duty in 1950.

His remains were identified through various means, including identification of dental records and bones as well as the creation of a clay sculpture of his face, using his skeletal remains, and comparing the sculpture with photographs of him, she said.

The Department of Defense said Di Salvo, a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, of the 1st Marine Division, was deployed on the western side of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea when three Communist Chinese Divisions launched an attack on them on Nov. 27, 1950.

According to the Defense Department, the attack went on for several days and Di Salvo was lost ``as a result of enemy action near Yudam-ni.''

He and several from his company were buried in a temporary grave near the battlefield.

In 1954, U.S. officials received from North Korea and then buried several sets of remains associated with Di Salvo's burial in Korea in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a cemetery known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii.

All but one of the sets of remains were identified, the department said.

In November 2006, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting command exhumed remains from the Hawaii cemetery believed to be those of Di Salvo.

Using various forensic tools, the department said Di Salvo's remains were eventually identified.

As the Marine honor guard carried the casket to the waiting hearse, airport security officer Adam Parker watched and saluted from the roof of a nearby parking deck.

The rainfall, he said, ``was fitting for the emotion'' of the event.

When her brother's remains were placed in the hearse at the airport, Pier, a Kroger retiree, said she was relieved the long ordeal that started on a battlefield in North Korea was nearly over.

``Everything is good,'' she said.

``Now, he's home.''