Dundalk family wants to bring sibling's remains home
Wed 11 Nov 2009
Fraternal twins Calvin, left, and Kenneth Bayne, 81, show medals awarded to and letters written by Pfc. Robert B. Bayne, who was killed while on a volunteer mission on the Rhine. The government's Missing Personnel Office told them it may be another year before a decision is made on whether to seek to disinter the remains for DNA testing.
A gray headstone marks the Bayne family plot in a Baltimore cemetery. Etched in the polished granite are the names of a mother, a father and their eldest son, a soldier lost in World War II.
But the remains of Pfc. Robert B. Bayne are interred far from his parents, most likely in an unknown soldier's grave in St. Avold, France. On this Veterans Day, his surviving brothers, 81-year-old twins Kenneth H. and Calvin C. Bayne, remain determined to bring the sibling they called Buddy home from the war that claimed his life in 1945.
"All we want is his remains," Calvin Bayne said.
"We have been waiting 64 years," added Kenneth Bayne.
While the Department of Defense and modern technology have made great strides in identifying war dead, the process is painstakingly slow for many families like the Baynes. Investigators trying to assist surviving families are working nearly 90,000 cases. The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office is looking into the Baynes' case, but have told the brothers it could be another year before they make a determination about whether to disinter what the Baynes both believe are the remains of their brother.
The brothers have pieced together the story of Buddy's last mission from their own research and accounts from the lone soldier who survived it and visited them after the war.
But the remains of Pfc. Robert B. Bayne are interred far from his parents, most likely in an unknown soldier's grave in St. Avold, France. On this Veterans Day, his surviving brothers, 81-year-old twins Kenneth H. and Calvin C. Bayne, remain determined to bring the sibling they called Buddy home from the war that claimed his life in 1945.
"All we want is his remains," Calvin Bayne said.
"We have been waiting 64 years," added Kenneth Bayne.
While the Department of Defense and modern technology have made great strides in identifying war dead, the process is painstakingly slow for many families like the Baynes. Investigators trying to assist surviving families are working nearly 90,000 cases. The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office is looking into the Baynes' case, but have told the brothers it could be another year before they make a determination about whether to disinter what the Baynes both believe are the remains of their brother.
The brothers have pieced together the story of Buddy's last mission from their own research and accounts from the lone soldier who survived it and visited them after the war.
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