It stirs our patriotic sentiments watching the repatriation unfold on the Korean peninsula. Vice President Mike Pence and the commander of U.S. forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, led a delegation of American service personnel to retrieve 55 coffins with the remains of U.S. and allied troops that have been missing in action since the 1950s.

It has been 65 years since Korean War hostilities ended. The remains of dozens of presumed U.S. war dead were on their way Wednesday to Hawaii for analysis and identification. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of American servicemen and possibly personnel from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war.

The remains were returned by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as a good-faith gesture after Kim’s summit last month with President Donald Trump. That meeting, it’s short- and long-term impact, and the significance of Kim’s return of the MIA remains are enigmatic and open to interpretation. That’s consistent with much of national politics and foreign affairs these days, especially as they pertain to the Trump administration.

That said, here is a Butler County perspective:

The repatriation of Korean War remains is at once global and local — a solemn affair that is simultaneously universal and intimate. About 7,700 U.S. soldiers remain missing from the 1950-53 Korean War and about 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea.

Thousands of American families now will await the outcome of forensic and DNA testing to establish the identities of the remains. Among them will be descendants in Butler County. Our Veterans Services department lists 53 service people as killed in action in the Korean War. County records do not distinguish between those who were killed in action (KIA) and those missing in action (MIA), but state registries of prisoners of war and MIAs indicate that eight men from Butler County remain as missing in action from the Korean War.

All served in the Army. They are:

- Cpl. Elgie DeWayne Brown

- Sgt. Burrell B. Cole

- Cpl. Clarence Albert Everetts

- Pvt. Harold O. Fullerton

- Cpl. James Thomas Mainhart

- Pvt. Wallace D. Miller

- Pvt. George L. Spangenberg

- Cpl. Howard W. Winrader Jr.

There’s an outside chance that one or more of our heroes lies among the remains now coming home. And if that doesn’t excite you like the prospects of a winning lottery ticket, there’s something wrong with you.

There are infinitely more pressing, more urgent circumstances surrounding the return of skeletal remains from a 60-year-old war. In particular, will Kim and the North Koreans follow through on a verbal commitment to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”? Or, as critics predict, is the Hermit Kingdom inclined to go back on its words, as it has several times in the past, and continue to threaten nuclear proliferation and instability?

Only the passing of time will answer this overriding question.

For now, it seems best to segregate that larger issue from the lesser but still significant gesture and honor the memory of fallen warriors returning home after more than a half-century. We must give them the homage and dignity that they deserve — and, for the moment, acknowledgment that North Korea has taken one step in the right direction.