Old glory waves, tough and triumphant. Just like the men and women who served this country.
“Hero, point blank hero,” Nicholas Adkins said.
Private Virgil Adkins served in the Korean War. 10 days before it ended, Adkins’s platoon took heavy enemy fire.
A statement from the military that was found by the Adkins family reads “courageously protecting his unit, he directed heavy fire upon the foe until mortally wounded by intense enemy fire.”
Nicholas Adkins is Virgil’s great nephew.
“It’s just like after all these years,” Adkins said, “you actually found something that how in the world is this even possible?
It took 60 years to bring Adkins body back home. After landing in Greensboro, North Carolina, an escort made up of veterans and police officers brought the Purple Heart and silver star recipients body back to his home town of Hinton, West Virginia.
“But it’s been a great honor,” Adkins said.
Saturday, friends and family honored their fallen loved one. Virgil’s name is no longer inscribed at the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now Virgil’s memory lives on in the hearts and minds of many.
“Because if it wasn’t for people like him we wouldn’t be able to stand here today and do what we’re doing here today, it’s all about freedom, people sacrificed their lives,” he said.