LATHAM, N.Y. – When Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Joseph Burke came home to Troy, New York, on May 1 – 84 years after he left – New York Army National Guard Soldiers welcomed him at the airport.
Joseph Leroy “Roy” Burke was captured by the Japanese in May 1942 in the Philippines and held prisoner for more than two years. He was killed inadvertently by U.S. forces in January 1945, as he was being transported to Japan on an unmarked prison ship. His remains were never identified, and he was interred with 431 other unknowns at the National Military Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
In 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency used DNA donated by the son of Burke’s sister to identify his remains. The family elected to bring him home to Troy, New York, where he had grown up, gone to college and first learned to fly.
New York Army National Guard Lt. Col. Michael Squires, the executive officer of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, served as the casualty assistance officer and worked with the family to coordinate the shipment of Burke’s remains to Albany International Airport. His role is to help the family negotiate the military casualty process, Squires said.
He was happy to help bring closure to the Burke family, Squires said.
“His parents weren’t able to have that closure; his brother and sisters weren’t. But now, knowing his brothers and sister and parents, see from up above what we’re doing to honor Roy in this time,” Squires said.
When the casket arrived at the Albany airport at 4:35 p.m. on board a Southwest Airlines flight, 10 members of the New York Army National Guard’s Honor Guard were there. They conducted a dignified transfer, moving the casket containing Burke’s remains from the airplane to a waiting hearse as TV cameras filmed and family members, escorted by Squires, stood nearby and watched.
The event, which is not considered a ceremony, took about one minute, but the planning and preparation took a week, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Gosse, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the state Honor Guard.
Gosse, who has served on New York’s Army Guard Honor Guard since 2018, said a lot of coordination is involved. Normally, Honor Guard members work in teams of two, so getting 10 Soldiers together means making sure schedules mesh, he said. It also means coordinating with the airport to get the team onto the tarmac in a timely manner and working with the baggage.
Three Soldiers in Army combat uniforms wearing white gloves arrived at the aircraft first. Their job was to go into the cargo hold, ensure that no baggage was around the casket and remove the cardboard shipping carton, Gosse explained. They also made sure that Burke's dog tags hung from the front of the casket and that the flag on the casket was secure.
They assisted airport baggage handlers in moving the casket onto a luggage truck. At that point, the seven-member honor guard, clad in dress blue uniforms, moved forward in formation. They picked up the casket, turned and briskly transported Burke's remains to the waiting hearse.
Watching it was very emotional, according to John Burke, one of Joseph Burke’s nephews and the family spokesman.
“To see the coffin come off, the Honor Guard go out, his dog tags hanging from the front, it’s just, it’s a lot,” he said.
On May 7, the New York National Guard will be there again for the Burke family. Following a memorial service at Siena University, where he went to college just outside Albany, he will be interred at the Gerald B. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery. The cemetery is located near the historic Revolutionary War battlefield.
The New York National Guard will render funeral honors, with Gosse once more overseeing the team. Burke will get the full honors due to a Soldier killed in action. These include a firing party, the playing of taps and a “six-man fold” of the American flag, Gosse said.
“It’s one of the highest honors we can give anybody,” Gosse said. “And since he was, unfortunately KIA, we want to give him as much respect as possible.”