MILFORD, PA – Milford Cemetery has a newly placed monument to an American war hero, one who left 75-years ago to serve his nation but never returned. SFC Milton Wesely Bailey left Milford High School before graduation to join the United States Army. As a soldier in the Korean War, he had just turned 20 when he went missing in battle in North Korea on July 17, 1971. While his family –
including his mother Beatrice Bailey, and his father, Freeman Jeffrey Brown of Middletown, NY, always held out hope that he would one day return, SFC Bailey remains MIA. The memorial stone placed in Milford Cemetery beside Gold Star Mother’s final resting place reserves a place should he one day be found.
Now in their 90s, a few classmates who grew up with Bailey recently recalled the missing soldier as fun, athletic, smart, just a regular hometown kid, and – most of all – dedicated to the mom and grandma who raised and deeply loved him.
The effort to memorialize Milton Bailey with a stone near his mom was initiated by Lisa Drake, daughter of Bailey’s classmate Godrey Drake and wife Norma. Lisa and her parents have been among others who have placed flags at veteran graves in Milford Cemetery over many decades.
Lisa recalls her interest in Milton Bailey peaking more than 15 years ago while her father was still living and part of placing flags with their family.
“It occurred to my brother Ric that year that there was no stone for Milton. He asked my dad if he could put a flag on Beattie’s (nickname Milton’s mom) grave for Milton. My dad initially said ‘no’, that doing that was not following protocol,” Lisa recalled. “But after he thought about it, he agreed, most assuredly because of his fondness for Milton. So, we’ve been doing it since at least 2010.”
Lisa said the stone for Milton came about after she found a form online that allowed a veteran’s stone to be requested for a missing veteran if a funeral home would be willing to accept the stone and set it. She filled out the form, had all of the information verified, and took it to Chris Brighton, owner/operator of Stroyan Funeral Home. Brighton went to the Milford Cemetery Board, received approval, and filled out the remainder of the form and submitted it.
“When the stone came in, Kevin Stroyan, former owner of the funeral home and the one person who knows the cemetery best, set the stone right behind Milton’s mother’s plot,” Lisa said. “So, should remains ever be found they could be buried there.”
While few remain in Milton Bailey’s hometown class, or his family, other efforts have also been underway on behalf of the missing soldier over past decades. Lori Strelecki, long-time director of Pike County’s Historical Society and Columns Museum and keeper of the Bailey Family archives, has carefully preserved dozens of nearly daily letters sent home from Bailey to his mother and grandmother, and other items from the Bailey home. She assisted Drake and has helped with efforts to find and bring Bailey home. She has consistently praised the strength shown by Bailey’s family throughout their lives.
“Sarah, Phoebe and Beatrice (Bailey’s great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother) were fearless in their lives as well, fighting their own battles every day,” Strelecki said in past conversations about the family SFC Bailey left behind. “Milton and his family are remembered fondly by those who knew them and the community that greatly mourns their loss. We hope one day to bring Milton home.”
Bailey’s family includes a long line of military service on both sides. Bailey was in America’s last Buffalo Soldier unit. His maternal great-grandfather was a Civil War Buffalo Soldier in the first. Others in his family have served in various branches of the military, and during other war times. On Bailey’s last mission, Bailey was recalled by a comrade to have been last seen holding off heavy enemy fire from a North Korean mountain range so that his unit could retreat. When the unit later returned to search for Bailey, no sign existed. Efforts to reward Bailey’s bravery are underway, as is the continued hope that he may still one day be found, identified, and returned home.
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