On a Wednesday during the first month of the Korean War, U.S. Air Force Capt. Howard Odell led three F-80 fighter jets to intercept four North Korean fighters, as the enemy forces attacked the South Korean town of Taejon. In the ensuing dogfight on July 19, 1950, the American forces shot down the North Korean fighters. Odell’s jet, however, suffered numerous hits. As he tried to land his damaged craft on an American-controlled airstrip, it slid into a riverbank and exploded, killing him. North Korean forces captured the town the next day, preventing the recovery of Odell’s body.
Taejon remained under North Korean control until Allied Forces liberated it on Oct. 3, 1950. American personnel recovered a set of unidentified remains near Taejon, designated them “X-100,” and eventually buried them in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The news of Odell’s disappearance devastated his family in Poughkeepsie, New York. “My grandmother was heartbroken,” Patricia Lahey, one of Odell’s nieces, recalled.
But Odell’s family kept him in their memories and passed the story of his life down to the next generation. For years, his great-niece Caitlin Durnin and her husband, Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Naske, wore memorial bracelets bearing Odell’s name. Meanwhile, the U.S. military worked to identify him. As part of an effort to identify 652 Korean War unknowns buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, personnel with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) disinterred “X-100” in November 2019 and eventually identified the remains as Odell’s.
In March 2025, an Air Force mortuary official contacted Lahey and informed her they had identified her uncle. The news brought her to tears. Lahey first considered laying Odell to rest with his family in New York, but after discussing it with her own family, she decided he deserved a funeral service conducted at Arlington National Cemetery.
At the funeral service on Oct. 15, 2025, U.S. Air Force Chaplain Maj. Mario Catungal emphasized that the sacrifices made by service members like Odell enable others to enjoy freedom. “We honor Capt. Howard Odell for his service to our nation,” he added. “We also thank his family and friends for being a part of his service. Your support contributed to his successful career.”
After the funeral service concluded, Lahey sought out Naske in the crowd, who had been wearing his great-uncle-in-law’s memorial bracelet for 15 years and handed him the tri-folded American flag. Naske had escorted Odell’s remains on a flight from Honolulu to Arlington, at times sleeping next to his casket. Lahey’s voice broke as she explained the decision to gift the flag to Naske, “My family decided that, for his service and for bringing my uncle home, he deserved the honor.”