Milford, PA, Bailey memorial stone placed beside Gold Star Mother
- Sharon E. Siegel
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Sharon E. Siegel
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 Wesley Bailey was born on April 14, 1931. He left Milford High School before graduation to join the United States Army while still a teen. As a soldier in the Korean War, he had just turned 20 when he went missing during heavy battle in North Korea on July 17, 1951.
While his family always held out hope that he would one day return, SFC Bailey remains MIA.
The memorial stone recently placed in Milford Cemetery beside his Gold Star Mother Beatrice Bailey remembers this missing soldier, and reserves a place beside his mom should he one day be found.
Now in their 90s, a few MHS classmates recently recalled the missing soldier as fun, athletic, smart, and just a regular hometown kid. Most of all, they remember how much he loved the the mom and grandma who raised him, and how deeply they loved him.
Beatrice Bailey kept every letter her young soldier son wrote home (nearly daily) from Korean battlefield locations.
The effort to memorialize Bailey with a stone near his mom was initiated by Lisa Drake, daughter of Milton's classmate and friend Godrey Drake and wife Norma. Lisa, her parents, and others have placed flags at veteran graves in Milford Cemetery over many decades.
Lisa recalls her interest in the missing soldier peaking more than 15-years-ago, while her father was still living and among those who placed flags regularly 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 (Beatrice’s nickname) 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.”
The military memorial stone that was placed this fall came about after Drake learned that a veteran stone could be provided for a missing veteran. It had to be accepted and set by a funeral home, so she completed and had all of the information on the request form verified. She then took it to Chris Brighton, owner/operator of Stroyan Funeral Home.
Brighton received approval from the Milford Cemetery Board, completed a remaining portion 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. So, should Milton’s remains ever be found, they could be buried there,” Lisa said.
Additional efforts have been underway on behalf of the missing soldier. Lori Strelecki, long-time director of Pike County’s Historical Society and Columns Museum, and keeper of the Bailey Family archives, has carefully preserved letters sent home from Bailey and other items from the Bailey home. A room displaying these archives has been named in honor of the Bailey Family.
Strelecki also assisted Drake and 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. Milton was in America’s last Buffalo Soldier unit. His maternal great-grandfather, a Civil War soldier, was in the first -- USCT. Others in his family have served in various branches of the military, and during other war times, including his father, the late Freeman Jeffrey Brown, Sr., Middletown, NY.
On Bailey’s last mission, as witnessed by a comrade, the missing local soldier was last seen holding off heavy enemy fire from a North Korean mountain range. This comrade, Curtis Morrow, was the Point Man on that mission -- charged with leading his unit to locate enemy positions. It was Milton’s duty as the mission's Rear Guard to allow the unit to safely retreat if they came under fire.
This was what Bailey was last seen doing as the unit scrambled down the mountain. Yet when it was discovered that Bailey had not returned to their base with the rest of his unit, a return and search of the area was conducted later that day. It produced no sign of Bailey at that 38th Parallel Line region, now known as the DMZ.
Bailey's last known location remains a pinpoint on a mapped North Korean mountain ridge side of the line.
