KOREAN WAR

ST. LOUIS — The etchings in the marble gravestone made it official: After more than 75 years, Donald Eichschlag, who'd been killed at 17 in the Korean War, had returned in St. Louis.

Eischschlag, known as Donnie, was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by family members and around two dozen other members of the public.

"This is the end of my mother's grief, my grandmother's heartbreak," said Eichschlag's nephew, Ron Schilling, of Florissant.

"I'm at a loss of words," he said, after the ceremony.

Eichschlag grew up in the Jeff-VanderLou neighborhood and got his parents' permission to enlist in the military after high school. He'd hoped to become a Catholic priest, and his family hoped that it might "toughen up his gentle soul."

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