Welcome home, Sgt. Duran

Photo By Winifred Brown | Members of the New Mexico National Guard Honor Guard carry Sgt. Alfonso O. Duran’s casket from a hearse for a ceremony at Santa Fe National Cemetery, N.M., Aug. 22, 2018. Duran, a nose gunner who served with the 724th Bombardment Squadron, 451st Bombardment Group (Heavy), U.S. Army Air Force, during World War II, went missing Feb. 25, 1944 after German fighters shot down his plane during a mission targeting Regensburg, Germany. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recovered his remains May 22 and the Army buried him at Santa Fe National Cemetery, N.M., with full military honors Aug. 22. Duran grew up in El Rito, N.M., about an hour’s drive north of Santa Fe, and a family member said he was quiet, polite and always willing to give younger members of the family horse rides on the family’s ranch.  

NM, UNITED STATES

08.30.2018

Story by Winifred Brown  

Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office

By Wendy Brown
Fort Bliss Garrison Public Affairs

SANTA FE, N.M. – For 74 years and 86 days, no one knew exactly what happened to Sgt. Alfonso O. Duran from El Rito, N.M.
The last person to see him alive was the tail gunner on a B-24H Liberator aircraft as it went down due to German anti-aircraft fire Feb. 25, 1944, in the skies above the former Yugoslavia during World War II. Duran was the nose gunner and he was the only one who didn’t bail out and survive.
Presumed dead, the location of his body remained a mystery until the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency positively identified Duran’s remains in the village of Pokojišče, Slovenia, May 22. In the presence of his family, the Army buried Duran at Santa Fe National Cemetery Aug. 22.
Pat Duran, who lives in Maryland and was instrumental in working with government officials to bring her uncle’s remains back to New Mexico, said the occasion was bittersweet.
“It’s kind of heartbreaking, but it’s also a happy occasion,” said Pat Duran, who was born 10 years after her uncle died. “It’s brought us all together as a family and we share old memories, make new memories and strengthen our connections and everything. It’s a really wonderful thing, but it’s also very sad.”
For example, Sgt. Duran’s mother, Maria Gracia Martinez Duran, died in 1972 not knowing what happened to her son, Pat Duran said.“When they brought up the coffin and everything, it just made me think about (Sgt. Duran’s mother) and how she would have given anything to know where he was and to have been here for this,” said Pat Duran after the ceremony. “I think about her especially.”
Edmund Martinez, Sgt. Duran’s cousin, said the Japanese held Sgt. Duran’s older brother Gilberto as a prisoner of war, so not knowing what happened to Sgt. Duran hit Maria Duran hard. She and her husband Gilberto had three sons, and Gilberto was the oldest, followed by Alfonso.Maria Duran would have been proud to have Sgt. Duran back, Martinez said, and he is thankful for all of Pat Duran’s efforts to bring him home.
Martinez, 84, said he remembers visiting with Sgt. Duran at the family ranch in El Rito when he was about 5 years old and his cousin was a teenager.
“Alfonso was the one who saddled the horses for us and led us around the ranch on the horse,” Martinez said.
Sgt. Duran was quiet and nice, Martinez said. “That’s what I remember mostly about him. That he was very quiet,” he said.
Sgt. Duran served with the 724th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 451st Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force, an Army Air Force unit, and members of Sgt. Duran’s family said they were thankful the Army brought him back.
Members of the New Mexico Army National Guard Honor Guard and other officials met Sgt. Duran’s coffin at the Albuquerque International Sunport Aug. 21, and they provided a ceremony with full military honors at the cemetery the next day.
“I would like to thank the U.S. Army for the fabulous job they’ve done on this, particularly Capt. (Gabe) Peterman. He was a wonderful front man for the U.S. Army, and any questions I had, he answered immediately,” said Stanley Evans, Sgt. Duran’s nephew.Although Sgt. Duran was missing for more than seven decades, family members can take some comfort in the fact that at least one resident of Pokojišče, population 14, took care of his former gravesite when they could not.
According to a press release from the DPAA, a team from the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, a predecessor of DPAA, visited Pokojišče in 2012 and interviewed residents who reported the remains of an unidentified Allied military member, who later turned out to be Sgt. Duran, were buried next to Saint Stephen’s Church in the village.
“The grave was regularly tended to by Mrs. Tončka Dragar, who cordoned it off with stones and regularly laid flowers on the mound,” according to the press release.

• Date Taken: 08.30.2018
• Date Posted: 08.30.2018 14:51
• Story ID: 290989
• Location: NM, US