Pickett had died of heart failure on March 19, 1965 in Darjeeling while on a round-the-world trip and had been buried in the cemetery, which houses the graves of many Englishmen, including the discoverer of Darjeeling, Lt Gen George W Aylmer Lloyd, and Hungarian linguist Sandor Csoma de Koros.
The decorated officer’s body was exhumed in March after the American Citizens Services (ACS) unit of the US consulate general, Kolkata, got the necessary approvals from the West Bengal government’s home & hill affairs department. “We issued the no-objection certificate that was required for exhumation and another for the repatriation of the remains,” department special secretary B P Gopalika told TOI.
Earlier, negotiations between the US embassy and the ministry of external affairs had led to clearance from the government of India.
“This week, more than 50 years after his passing, decorated World War I and II veteran Major General Harry Kleinbeck Pickett returned home to his family in the United States, for re-burial at Arlington National Cemetery. This was only possible because dedicated partners in West Bengal and Darjeeling extended their care and support. Thank you for reuniting Major General Pickett with his loved ones, and for strengthening the bonds of friendship that bind Americans and Indians together,” tweeted US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti.
Major General Pickett was commissioned into the United States Marine Corps in 1913 and went on to become one of the few Americans who served with distinction in both world wars.
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