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Rosalie Serafin’s blood sample was matched to her brother’s war remains.
Ron and Rosalie Serafin of Plains Township look over photographs from Rosalie’s brother Peter Kubic’s funeral.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
PLAINS TWP. – Had Rosalie Serafin not given a blood sample, her older brother, U.S. Army Pfc. Peter Kubic, might still be listed as missing in action from the Korean War.
His remains were returned with those of other soldiers nearly 20 years ago and identified in February through DNA matching. He was buried Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery, ending a 60-year wait for the family of the Laflin soldier who went missing after a battle.
Serafin’s husband, Ron, urged her to provide a sample and a military nurse came to their home in Plains Township to take it to aid in the identification of bones handed over by North Korea in 1993. Kubic’s dog tags were among the bones and documents handed over in 1991.
“There’s always the possibility,” her husband said he told his wife.
The couple and more than 20 other family members spanning three generations traveled to the cemetery for the military funeral provided by the U.S. Army.
“It’s a happy time for us. We have him home with us,” said Serafin, the youngest of nine children.
She and two other sisters, Margaret Giovagnoli of Jenkins Township and Elizabeth Kelleher of Long Island are the surviving family members.
Serafin, 71, wished that her sister Anna, who died at the age of 88 in 2006, was alive to attend the service and say goodbye to their brother.
“She was very close to him. She tried everything to find out,” said Serafin.
It was Ann who wrote letters to her brother when he was overseas telling him about the weather and goings on back home. She kept on writing letters to the Army and other agencies asking for information about him. She received his dog tags but died before a positive identification was made of the bones belonging to her brother.
Kubic, 22, had served three years in the Army and was working in a lace mill in Wilkes-Barre earning $20 a week when he was called to serve again. At the time he was in the Army reserves. “He was only home for six or seven months then the Korean War broke,” said Serafin.
She said her older sister Margaret recalled seeing her brother drive off with a friend, Francis Kubek, from their home to go to war.
“He joined the Army because he wanted to get a trade. He loved working on automobiles,” said Serafin. He also loved baseball and played locally, she added.
In the Army, he was a member of Co. K, 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. His unit came under attack near Hoengsong, South Korea, and he was taken prisoner on Feb. 12, 1951. He died on Dec. 31 of that year, but his remains were not recovered, the Army said.
Serafin said her sister Ann was able to fill in some of the missing details about their brother time in captivity.
She had gotten in contact with people who were in his company and was told, “He was picked to go on a death march,” said Serafin.
While she was alive, Serafin’s mother clung to the hope that her son would return home. Serafin said her mother would always say, “Leave the door open” for him.
As the years of waiting turned into decades, Serafin accepted that her brother was dead, but wanted closure of some sort.
She regularly attended the Novena at St. Ann’s in Scranton, praying for help. Her sister Ann also never gave up.
“I think she helped us find him,” she said.
Ever since the Korean War memorial was unveiled on the Luzerne County Courthouse lawn in 1992 with her brother’s name and the names of 141 other servicemen who were killed in the conflict, Serafin has visited it. Three times a year she goes, on the anniversary of the end of the war on July 27, 1953, on Memorial Day and on the anniversary of Kubic’s birthday on June 2, 1928.
Each time she places a rose at the memorial.
A wilted red rose, adorned with red, white and blue ribbon, lay at the base of the granite memorial on Sunday, a day after a service was held to mark the 58th anniversary of the war’s end.