In a ceremony that was both a homecoming and a farewell, Vicksburg native Oscar Nettles was laid to rest more than a half-century after he was killed in action in Korea.

&#8220Private first class, hero first class, soldier first class,” Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross, adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard, said of Nettles during a service at Lakeview Memorial Funeral Home Thursday, attended by surviving family members, elected officials and military personnel.

The service featured spiritual hymns and patriotic standards. North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield read a proclamation by the city making the week of Nov. 26 to Dec. 2 &#8220Oscar Howard Nettles week” in commemoration of the days after Nettles went missing in a bitterly cold North Korea forest.

Later, at Cedar Hill Cemetery, after his surviving sister, Rosa Griffin, 66, received the folded American flag, Nettles received a burial appropriate for a fallen soldier.

Nettles was born March 10, 1930, in Claiborne County and attended the McIntyre School on Cherry Street where Good Shepherd Community Center has headquarters today. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 1949, a time when military units were still racially segregated.

&#8220He never got to hear the names of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King or Fannie Lou Hamer. But he comes home to us today on this beautiful day,” Cross said.

Assigned to Company A of the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, Nettles was engaged against Chinese Communist forces assisting the North Koreans after the Western Allied victory at the Battle of Inchon.

Nettles was lost in action on Nov. 26, 1950, while with the 863rd Transportation Company and was presumed dead Dec. 31, 1953. In the interim, he was posthumously promoted to Private First Class status.

In November 1999, a joint team of investigators from the United States and the North Korean government went to a location in Kujang-Dong, in the north central part of the country east of Pyongyang, to look into a burial site believed to be a U.S. soldier’s.

The team interviewed a 65-year-old male villager there who was 16 when Nettles’ unit was in the area. The man told the team that two paratroopers, one white and one black, landed on a hill near the village and were spotted by North Korean reservists.

The black paratrooper was shot and killed and was buried by the man’s father and village elders, the man reported. He pointed out the burial mound to investigators.

A series of tests done by the Army’s DNA lab ensued, including comparisons of Griffin and one of her daughters, Sherry Johnson, earlier this year. It also compared Nettles’ dental records with those found on the human remains unearthed by the team.

The report, prepared in March, positively identified the remains as Nettles’.

Col. Thomas Fuller, chaplain of the Mississippi National Guard, rounded out the speakers by honoring Nettles’ military service against the lingering perception of the Korean Conflict as the Forgotten War.

&#8220He is surely not forgotten by me today. Because this young man is unforgettable.”

Nettles is survived by Griffin, his mother, Evelyn Smith of Vicksburg and nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends.