U.S. Army Cpl. Benjamin Bazzell in a photo from the DPAA.
ANSONIA-SEYMOUR – It was an agonizing question that went unanswered for 70 years: Where’s Benny?
Benny was U.S. Army Cpl. Benjamin R. Bazzell, 18, of Seymour. He went missing in action in 1950, during the Korean War, and was officially declared deceased in 1954.
His family could not give him a proper burial because his body remained missing.
The words “where’s Benny” don’t do justice to the emotional weight the question carried for Benny’s parents, the late Howard and Helen Bazzell, or the other Bazzell children – the late Howard Jr., Beverly, who now lives in Washington State, and Lois, who passed away in 2001.
Nor can words adequately explain how “where’s Benny” formed the childhood of former state Rep. Linda Gentile – daughter of Lois Menna, granddaughter to Helen Bazzell, and niece to Cpl. Bazzell.
Gentile saw her grandmother, and then her mother, keep “Uncle Benny’s” spirit alive not just through stories, but through decades of letters and correspondence with the military, the government and anyone who might help bring Benny home.
On Dec. 7, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency – a part of the United States Department of Defense – publicly announced that Cpl. Bazzell’s remains had been found and had been positively identified.
Though Cpl. Bazzell’s surviving family members learned of this last spring, his remains (thanks to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic) have not yet arrived in Tacoma, Washington, where his 84-year-old sister, Beverly, lives, and where Cpl. Bazzell will finally be laid to rest with military honors.
That ceremony will probably happen this coming spring, Gentile told The Valley Indy during an interview in her Ansonia home earlier this month.
“It’s Uncle Benny’s Christmas gift to us. He’s coming home. He’s not quite there yet, but he’s coming home. We are at peace,” Gentile said.
Benny Bazzell and his sister, Lois, in Seymour in 1936. Lois is the mother of former Derby and Ansonia state Rep. Linda Gentile.
A Kid From The Valley
Before he was Cpl. Bazzell, he was just “Benny,” a kid growing up on Hull Place in Seymour. His dad, Howard, worked at the local copper mill.
In an interview with The Associated Press, his sister Beverly said Benny was a sweet boy who would bring her candy after working his shift at a bowling alley.
Robert Peck, a member of the American Legion. Emil Senger Post 10 in Seymour, told The Valley Indy he remembered sledding with Benny in the Maple Street area when the two were 10 or 11 years old.
“He had a great sledding hill in the neighborhood. Everybody in the Maple Street area of Seymour would slide on this hill,” Peck said.
Former State Rep. Linda Gentile.
While Gentile never met her “Uncle Benny,” her extended family shared memories.
“He was the best-looking of the bunch, they all joked,” she said. “They described him as somebody who was sweet and kind. Someone who had a sense of humor. Someone who just liked to live life.”
Peck said Benny wasn’t big on book learning.
“He wanted no part of high school. So this meant as soon as he was 16 he was going to quit and that’s what he did,” Peck said. “Now what do you do? You can’t get a job, and, in those days, you could not hang around. So he pestered his mother because he wanted to go into the service at 17.”
Gentile said the family story was that Benny had his mother sign his military papers without knowing what they were.
“She thought she was signing something else. He enlisted just before his 18th birthday,” Gentile said.
After enlisting but before he was shipped to Korea, the Bazzell family on Hull Place received a postcard from Benny marked Aug. 17, 1950. It showed the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on the front.
“Well, I got to Seattle OK, and I’m on time. I didn’t get air sick. This is the airport I came into in Seattle. Well, I’ll say goodbye for now. I’ll write soon.”
That was the last they heard from him.
The postcard.
The Battle Of The Chosin Reservoir
According to the U.S. military, Cpl. Bazzell was killed in action in the winter of 1950, during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
He was part of the 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division.
The battle, which dragged on for roughly two weeks starting in late November, is considered by military experts as among the most brutal ever fought. Temperatures plummeted to minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Thousands of Chinese soldiers flooded Cpl. Bazzell’s position, which was to the east of the reservoir. The battle was hand-to-hand at times.
A 2001 military document says Cpl. Bazzell was killed either protecting the perimeter of his area from Chinese troops, who were attempting to destroy American artillery positions; or he may have been killed as American service members – surrounded by Chinese troops – fought to reach Koto-ri, where there were troop reinforcements.
He was 18 years old.
About 1,000 U.S. soldiers and U.S. Marines were killed. They were part of a United Nations fighting force of about 30,000 people who faced off against Chinese troops totaling more than 100,000, according to the Associated Press.
The Impact
Cpl. Bazzell’s sister, Beverly, told The Associated Press that her mom was never the same after the military contacted the family to say he was missing in December 1950.
Gentile concurred.
“My grandmother had pretty much a breakdown from all this because there was no closure. When she was able, she channeled her energy into Gold Star Mothers, and that’s when she started writing all of these letters,” Gentile said.
Gentile’s grandmother (Cpl. Bazzell’s mother) was a curator of her son’s documents. During her interview with The Valley Indy, Gentile laid out a fraction of the collection on the dining room table in her Ansonia home.
Cpl. Bazzell received a Purple Heart posthumously.
There was the last postcard the family received. The Purple Heart he received posthumously. Telegrams from the military. Replies to letters sent to the military. Newspaper clippings. Photographs from Cpl. Bazzell’s childhood.
The letters were constantly asking the military for updates on the whereabouts of her son. She even sent letters to media publications that had published photos of an unidentified soldier being held in Korea.
Gentile said she was acutely aware of the void in the family.
“For my eighth-grade graduation, my grandma and grandpa said,‘ Linda, we’re not going to get you any presents, we’re taking you to Washington, D.C.”
They went to Arlington National Cemetery and watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“I stood next to my grandmother and when I looked at her I saw one tear coming down her face. I saw her mouth the word ‘Benny.’ That stuck with me. I’m 70 years old and I still remember that,” Gentile said.
Gentile’s mother, Lois, took up the cause after Gentile’s grandmother died.
“All of our lives we heard stories and we saw pictures. We heard all the stories of the Great Depression, of wearing cardboard in the soles of their shoes, of all the hand-me-down clothes,” Gentile said. “But they had each other. So when this happened, it was just totally devastating.”
“In some ways I think it was more painful for them than to mourn a death. With a death you know what’s there, you get your loved one returned to you. You mourn. Missing in action, it’s a limbo,” Gentile said.
The family never lost hope.
“They never gave up. You can see letter after letter, even after they declared him deceased. Where is he? When can we have him?” Gentile said.
In 2001, Gentile’s mother read a story on the front page of The New Haven Register. “DNA Link A Key To Lost GIs” the headline said.
Lois Gentile promptly had her family submit DNA samples in case they were ever needed.
Turns out it was the smart thing to do.
Soldier Accounted For
In June 2018, President Donald Trump traveled to Singapore for a summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un. Part of the discussion focused on returning the remains of service members who died in Korea.
On July 27, 2018, North Korea turned over 55 boxes they said contained human remains.
Scientists working for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System – using DNA testing along with anthropological analysis, according to the military – were able to identify Cpl. Bazzell.
The identification happened in April 2020, toward the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.
Gentile’s Aunt Beverly told her the news.
It was bittersweet for all. Gentile noted her grandparents, parents, and and her uncle all went their graves not knowing where “Benny” was. At the same time, a sense of peace looms over the Cpl. Bazzell memorabilia in Gentile’s house.
“I can’t help but feel the presence of my mother and my grandmother and my aunts and uncles. This was all theirs. My grandmother had all her photos and documents saved. When she died my mother took it over. When she died I got it all. They just never gave up.”
