The Owasso VFW Post 7180 and local citizens participated Thursday in honoring a fallen hero.
The procession for Pvt. Leonard A. Kittle, led by the Patriot Guard, was returning him home to Caney, Kansas via Hwy 75 around 1:30pm Thursday afternoon. Owasso VFW members as well as citizens lined the 116th Street bridge with flags over Hwy 75.
Pvt. Kittle is returning home after a 62 year delay. The remains of 17 service members who died in a 1952 Globemaster crash on the side of an Alaskan glacier were recovered and are being sent home to their families after being lost for more than six decades. The crash site was finally discovered in 2012.
Identified the recovered remains belonging to Army Lt. Col. Lawrence S. Singleton; Army Pvts. James Green Jr. and Leonard A. Kittle; Marine Corps Maj. Earl J. Stearns; Navy Cmdr. Albert J. Seeboth; Air Force Cols. Noel E. Hoblit and Eugene Smith; Air Force Capt. Robert W. Turnbull; Air Force 1st Lts. Donald Sheda and William L. Turner; Air Force Tech. Sgt. Engolf W. Hagen; Air Force Staff Sgt. James H. Ray; Air Force Airman 1st Class Marion E. Hooton; Air Force Airmen 2nd Class Carroll R. Dyer, Thomas S. Lyons and Thomas C. Thigpen; and Air Force Airman 3rd Class Howard E. Martin.
They will receive a burial with full military honors.
