Black Maryland veteran missing since WWII is laid to rest in Crownsville

Private First Class James R. Heigh was finally laid to rest Thursday at the Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville — more than eight decades after the Buffalo Soldier was killed in action during WWII.

Heigh, born in Calvert County in 1920, enlisted in the Army in October 1942. He served in the 92nd Infantry Division deployed to Italy. Military records indicate he was returning to barracks after a night patrol with his platoon in November 1944 when he was shot and killed.

He was long considered killed in action, and his body unrecoverable. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

Then, in 2019, David Matthews, who lives in Severn, received a letter from the Pentagon. The remains of his biological grandfather might have been salvaged and identified.

It would take a lot of patience, a deep examination of records and a DNA test before Heigh’s remains were verified.

The Buffalo Soldiers

At the time of Heigh’s death, the military was racially segregated. The 92nd Infantry Division that Heigh was assigned to was the only segregated Black unit to see combat in Europe during World War II.

The division adopted the American buffalo as their insignia shortly before they were deployed to France in World War I and the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” as a reference to the the 19th century U.S. Army regiments made up entirely of Black Americans who served on the frontier.

During WWII, the 92nd Infantry was largely commanded by white officers, and there was a general sense of distrust between soldiers and command. Of the 12,846 Buffalo Soldiers who saw combat during the Italian campaign, 2,848 were captured, wounded or killed, according to WWII Magazine.

However, most Black soldiers did not see active combat in the war, said Christopher England, an assistant teaching professor in Towson University’s history department. Many were relegated to service jobs or manual labor, he said.

“The handful of [Black] troops who are allowed to engage in active duty combat, their actions are questioned. They’re generally seen as being given the more dangerous missions,” England said. “There’s a sense that they’re expendable to the extent they’re even allowed to see active combat.”

Heigh’s family and return

After decades of being considered lost in Italy, Heigh was returned to Maryland at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport aboard a Southwest Airlines flight last week.

Matthews and other members of his family went to the airport to welcome him back to American soil.

A small group gathered again Thursday in the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville for a brief, intimate memorial service. An American flag draped over Heigh’s casket as a U.S. Army honor guard carried it into a chapel.

After bringing the casket in, members of the guard carefully folded the flag. Outside, soldiers fired a three-volley salute, and then played taps.

Three casings from the salute were then folded into the flag, which was presented to Matthews and his family as a token of appreciation for Heigh’s service. Nobody delivered remarks.

Matthews said he did not know about Heigh when he was growing up. Heigh married Matthews’ grandmother Henrietta before enlisting in the army. They had one child, Pauline, a year before he enlisted. Pauline, who died in 1993, is Matthews’ mother.

For most of his life, Matthews really only knew one man as his grandfather — Preston Vauls, whom Henrietta married after Heigh died. He knew his grandmother had a previous relationship but did not know any details.

Henrietta died in 2009, and Preston in 2016. After his death, one of Matthews’ aunts, Donna Vauls, started going through old belongings in the closet and found documents related to Heigh and World War II.

“I pulled the thread and it kind of unraveled into what we have now,” Matthews said.

He began attending events for families of soldiers considered prisoners of war or missing in action.

“Everything just, it just went so quick,” Matthews said.

Then in 2019, Matthews received a letter asking him to submit a DNA test, because the remains of his biological grandfather may have been found.

“I mailed it back, and I didn’t hear anything for quite awhile,” Matthews said.

Last year, he got a phone call with the news: His biological grandfather’s remains were found and identified in northern Italy. Matthews said an archaeological dig there, required as part of a development project, uncovered the remains of more than 200 soldiers. The military began sorting through them and reaching out to families.

Matthews said it was surreal and “a little dizzying” getting reconnected with his family history, especially in such a concrete way.

He remembers learning about the Buffalo Soldiers in school, and, of course, about World War II more broadly. His family had no idea it had any connection to the war until 2016.

“Then you find out you actually have lineage to it, you’re actually linked to it. It was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy,’” Matthews said.

Matthews said he felt a sense of family responsibility to see Heigh’s return through, and to bring him home.

“It’s so good to honor a fallen veteran. To actually be a small part of bringing a war veteran home,” Matthews said after the service. “It was an honor to be a part of that.”

When the memorial was finished, Heigh’s casket was placed into a vault, which was then buried — just a few rows from the marker where Preston and Henrietta are buried, and not far from where Pauline and her husband are in another section of the cemetery.