Ferfolia Funeral Home

Army Sgt. First Class Peter Simon was a decorated World War II veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, but his luck ran out when he was killed in the first major battle of the Korean War in 1950.He was born in Grindstone, Pennsylvania, in 1915, the son of John and Elizabeth Simon, with six siblings (all deceased now). The family later moved to Northeast Ohio.Simon's niece, Dolores Soltesz, of Maple Heights, was contacted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) earlier this year with news that her uncle had been identified."I was oldest living relative," she said. "It was a big shocker. I couldn't believe it. After 68 years of him being dead, it was a very big surprise to me."Simon was serving with the 1st Cavalry Division as part of the last-ditch defense of the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea.U.S. soldiers man the line at the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War, a battlefield where Army Sgt. Peter Simon, a decorated World War II veteran, was killed in action. (U.S. Army photo)  According to the DPAA, he was killed in action on September 5, 1950, but his remains were not located following the battle.In 1951, American Graves Registration Service personnel were directed to a site by a villager where three sets of remains were discovered.One set, tagged as Unknown X-1085, could not be identified and were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.In January 2018, while trying to identify another unknown Korean War casualty, the DPAA identified Simon's remains.Soltesz said Simon's mother had previously provided officials with a DNA sample to be used in identifying her son.She only knew her uncle largely by sight. "As a kid I did see him," she said. "I was 8 years old when he joined the Army, and 16 when he got killed, so I never really got close to him."But she did hear about him from her other uncles. "They said he was a great guy. They said he was wonderful," she said.Simon had been married, and divorced, with no children.She reca... (cleveland.com)