February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Before he was eligible for citizenship, he was conscripted to fight in Korea and died after a year of service. He is one of the 28 other non-U.S. deceased veterans who have been given posthumous citizenship, reports the Westmeath Independent.
Pat Creavin, McCormack’s cousin, remembers, “Michael was conscripted into the army in the Quartermaster Corps. He was in Korea for over a year before he died. My brother, Joe Creavin, also from Taughmaconnell, was in the Quartermasters Corps too but a different regiment to his cousin.
“Joe had a bit of leave, so he visited the regiment Michael was a member of to catch up on old times, but when he arrived at their base he found out that Michael had drowned in the Chunchon River in South Korea a few days earlier.”
McCormack’s memory will be further honored when his name is added to the War Dead Monument in Washington. His name is already inscribed on the Bunker Hill monument in Boston, his home before his untimely death.