The sound of “Taps” echoed off the Scott County, Virginia mountains Saturday as soldiers saluted a flag-draped coffin. Master Sgt. Roy Head was returned to the Virginia hills he left as a teenager 59 years ago to go to war. Army members carried him to his final resting place, right beside his mother and father, and delivered closure to his surviving loved ones. This ceremony was a remembrance for the sacrifice Head made during the Korean War when he was captured in 1951 while on patrol and died of malnutrition in a Chinese Communist Army prison camp. He starved to death. Most of his family them never got to see the day his body would be brought back home. MSG Head’s remains were identified earlier this year following DNA testing conducted by U.S. Army forensics labs in Hawaii. His body arrived in Virginia on Wednesday following a flight from Hawaii. A unit from Fort Bragg, N.C., was on the tarmac to salute the fallen solider on his way home. Eight members of the 23rd Brigade from Fort Lee in Petersburg, Va., carried Head’s casket up to the plot, while three of the soldiers walked farther above the site to fire the traditional rifle volleys over the casket following a benediction. A pastor said “How nice it is that he is home. What a blessing that is,” prior to the gunshots that shattered the afternoon air with the salute. Fort Lee officers then crisply folded the American flag covering MSG Head’s casket and presented it to his oldest brother, John. “As a representative of the United States of America, it is my highest privilege to present you with this flag. It is with loyalty and dedication that Master Sergeant Head gave up his life,” the officer said, placing the flag in John Head’s lap. As the crowd dispersed, Roy Head, son of David and the namesake of his late uncle, summed up years of yearning, uncertainty and grieving with these words: “You know I went to Arlington National Cemetery years ago and walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I often wondered if that might be (my uncle). But we now know that we have him here. He is home,” said Roy. God bless your Uncle Roy, son. That’s this morning’s Small Town Soap box.