Friday: Fallen Soldier Procession Through Walnut Creek

The Walnut Creek Police Department says a fallen soldier procession will go through Walnut Creek Friday evening.

According to police, United States Army, First Lt. Herman J. Sunstad, was Killed in Action on June 5th, 1944. His remains have recently been identified and are being returned home on Friday, November 8th, 2024, to his 80 year-old daughter and family.

Please read more background information about First Lt. Sunstad, provided by Honoring Our Fallen, below:

First Lieutenant Sundstad entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and served with the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), a volunteer-only Special Operations Light Infantry Unit known as Merrill’s Marauders. The Marauders arrived in Burma in February 1944, and on May 17, with the help of two Chinese infantry regiments, seized a strategic airfield near the village of Myitkyina, beginning a major battle in which combined American, Chinese, British, and Kachin (a group of native ethnicities of northern Burma) air and ground forces fought to drive out Japanese forces from the area, often fighting in grueling jungle conditions.

First Lt. Sundstad was killed in action on June 5, 1944, during the Battle of Myitkyina, but due to battlefield conditions his body could not be immediately recovered. Post-war efforts by U.S. military personnel during the 1940s to recover and identify 1st Lt Sunstad’s remains were unsuccessful. In 2018, DPAA began the first series of exhumations of unidentified remains believed to be associated with the Battle of Myitkyina and buried as World War II Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), in Honolulu. In November 2021, as a part of this effort, DPAA personnel exhumed one these unknowns from the NMCP for comparison to unresolved casualties of the Battle of Myitkyina. Based on DPAA laboratory analysis, and the totality of circumstantial evidence, an association was determined between this Unknown and First Lt. Sunstad.

We reach out to the community through media and social media to ask for your support lining the route with flags to honor this hero as he is returned home to receive the honors he deserves. The estimated time of departure from the airport is about 5:30pm.

Route from Oakland International Airport:
880 N to 24 eastbound
Exit Mt. Diablo Bl.
North on N. Main St. to Oak Hills Chapel

***** We encourage community members and visitors to wave flags in Walnut Creek, along the sidewalks lining N. Main St between Mt. Diablo Bl. And Civic Dr.****

Other upcoming veterans related events

• Nov 4 – Veterans Day Events Around Contra Costa County