Nieces of Marine Jack Cremean held each other and cried as a plane containing the remains of their uncle approached Wednesday at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, 77 years after he was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Nieces of Marine Jack Cremean held each other and cried as a plane containing the remains of their uncle approached Wednesday at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, 77 years after he was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
They thought of their mothers and grandparents who have died and had wanted to be there for that moment. After years of waiting, Cremean’s remains were finally identified in August using DNA that a sister submitted to the military 17 years ago.
“I’m just so glad he’s back, glad he’s home,” said niece Esther Spradlin after Cremean’s flag-draped casket was loaded into a hearse by a Marine honor guard.
There will be a public funeral Friday, on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing, in Arbor Vitae Cemetery in Madera, Calif. Cremean’s casket – containing some bones, old photos, a Marine uniform and a poem from his mother’s scrapbook – will be buried beside his parents.
Niece Donna Moren held a red, white and blue “Welcome Home!” balloon as the plane bearing his casket touched down in Fresno.
Cremean’s three nieces said they grew up feeling like they knew their uncle, although they were born after he died.
“There probably hasn’t been a day when I haven’t cried,” Moren said. The tears, she said, are for “family and the loss they felt and not having any closure.”
Cremean’s death wasn’t the first profound loss for his family. One of his three younger sisters died of polio as a child before he was killed in Oahu at age 21.
The grief the family experienced lingered and was passed on. The pain endures nearly eight decades later, but has been eased significantly with the identification of Cremean’s remains.
