There are only a small number of people left who remember First Sgt. David H. Quinn, who died more than 70 years ago in the Pacific Islands, fighting in World War II. But on Saturday morning, his funeral was overflowing with mourners.
“It was particularly gratifying that a lot of non-family members were there,” said Paul Quinn of Temple, David Quinn’s nephew. “That they care about such things.”
Saturday was a culmination, said Paul Quinn, of several years of waiting to see if his uncle’s remains – believed by the family to have been lost at sea – would be returned to be buried in the family plot.
Quinn, a Marine, was killed on Nov. 21, 1943, during the second day of the three-day battle for the island of Tarawa, which at the time was controlled by the Japanese and used as a base to launch air attacks.
Paul Quinn had been researching his uncle, one of three Temple men who had not returned from World War II, and contacting still-living members of his uncle’s platoon, when he learned that his uncle had been buried on Tarawa. This meant that his uncle’s remains may have been sitting, unidentified, in Hawaii, where unknown remains had been transferred after being disinterred after the war.
Two of David Quinn’s nieces submitted mitochondrial DNA samples for testing, and the family waited. It took several years before the DNA was definitively matched, and David Quinn was able to come home.
Quinn’s remains were flown to Manchester airport on Friday, and from there members of the military took the remains and gave them a “dignified transfer” from the plane to a hearse, which then took the remains to Cournoyer Funeral Home in Jaffrey. He was buried in Miller Cemetery on Saturday, following a funeral service at the Temple Congregational Church.
The members of the Quinn family filled the front of the church, but many of the more than 250 mourners didn’t know the Quinn family, including representatives from various veterans groups and the Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle group that escorts and presents a flag line for veteran funerals.
Quinn’s nephew, also named David H. Quinn in his uncle’s honor, thanked those who attended the service, and for honoring his uncle’s sacrifice, even many years after he had made it.
“It’s sad, that his parents and his siblings all passed, thinking that he had been lost at sea,” said David Quinn, during the funeral services. “What would they do with this day, if they were able to experience what we’re experiencing today? I can tell you that even after 75 years, the emotional impact on me and the entire family is profound.”
David Quinn never met his namesake, who had died before he was born, he said, but the memory of him lingered in his grandparent’s house, where his picture was memorialized.
“We knew it was something special, but we didn’t really understand what it was,” said David Quinn, recalling seeing the picture at his grandparent’s house. “We kind of viewed this as an abstract thing.”
The family honored his marker and empty grave, along with the other two Temple natives who died in World War II, said David Quinn, and still do today, but one of the moments he felt the most connection with the uncle he never met was when he visited the place where Quinn had trained in Florida, and looked through an archive about the troops that had trained there.
“I was just struck, and made a connection, that here I was, in the same building that he went through training in before shipping out,” said David Quinn.
Now, with Quinn’s story, other people seemed to have made their own connections with the man they never met, but who gave his life for the country.
“I think it’s the kind of story that hits people where they live, and makes them think about the price of freedom,” Paul Quinn said, after the burial.
Quinn never expected to find his uncles remains when he began researching his life years ago – but the unexpected end has capped his uncle’s legacy and allowed him to come home.
“The story has come to a good conclusion,” said Paul Quinn. “There’s closure there. It does feel good to have him back in town, where he belongs. It fills a void that had been there. It was the culmination of an awful lot of research and waiting.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.