Volunteers Needed to Honor Missing Soldier Whose Remains Will Return to St. Louis

ST. LOUIS - Community members have the opportunity to honor an 18-year-old U.S. Army member who was killed in the line of duty 75 years ago.

The Flagman’s Mission Continues is a community of volunteers that creates a memorial of flags for active service members’ funerals. At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, they’re asking volunteers to come to Shepard Funeral Chapel in St. Louis to put up 600 flags in honor of Corporal Frederick Carrino, who was killed in North Korea during the Korean War and buried as an Unknown Soldier in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific until his remains were identified last year.

Jeff Hastings, who oversees The Flagman’s Mission Continues, explained that they hope to create a memorial of flags lining the street to the chapel before Carrino’s service on Thursday, May 15, 2025. The organization also needs volunteers to take down the flags at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Hastings noted that their work would not be possible without volunteers, and this is an opportunity to honor Carrino for his sacrifice.

“We give the community a way to pay honor to the fallen heroes in their hometown,” he said. “It’s more of a celebration than it is a somber event because you get someone that’s been missing for 70 years, and families have passed on about how the relative went missing 70 years ago, and they passed that on from generation to generation. And finally, that community and that family is getting some closure on something that’s been basically an open book for 70 years. It’s important.”

Carrino was from Berkeley, Missouri, and joined the U.S. Army at age 18. He was a member of Battery B, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, in the Korean theater. He went missing in action on Dec. 6, 1950, during fighting at Hagaru-ri in North Korea.

In 1956, unidentified remains were buried as Unknown Soldiers in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. On Oct. 10, 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Carrino.

“In my opinion, the most important federal government agency in the world is the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency because we always swore that we’ll always bring them home. We’ll always bring them home. And through DNA and technology, they’re bringing them home,” Hastings said. “What a fabulous, fabulous thing to happen.”

Carrino’s name is inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. But he will finally get a proper burial in his hometown this week.

Carrino will lie in state from 2–8 p.m. on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at Shepard Funeral Chapel in St. Louis. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 16, where he will be posthumously awarded a Purple Heart. A procession will leave the funeral home at 12:30 p.m. to Jefferson Barracks National Ceremony, where there will be a service at 1:30 p.m. with full military honors followed by burial.

Hastings hopes volunteers will come out at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14, and Friday, May 16, 2025, to create the flag memorial as a way to honor Carrino. He encourages people to wear walking shoes and work gloves. Volunteers must be able to walk and carry up to five pounds. Kids age 11 and up are welcome to help.

“We can’t do it without the community, without the volunteers,” Hastings added. “This project isn’t about us. This project is a community project and bringing the community together for something that’s important…Just show up and come out, meet your community and do something that will be memorable for you, your kids, your grandkids for the rest of your life.”

If you have any questions about the Flagman’s Mission Continues or their work, including how to volunteer this week to honor Carrino, text or call 618-409-0323. To read Corporal Frederick Carrino’s obituary, click here.

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