{"id":211706,"date":"2026-04-27T21:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211706\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:00:31","slug":"world-war-two-airmans-remains-returned-to-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211706\/","title":{"rendered":"World War Two Airman’s Remains Returned to Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"Pallbearers carry Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Governale\u2019s casket from the church to a waiting hearse for the journey to Linden Hills Cemetery, where he is to be laid to rest alongside his parents and siblings. The hearse will drive past his former home in Bushwick before heading to the cemetery. (Photo: Paula Katinas)<\/p>\n

WILLIAMSBURG \u2014\u00a0Eighty-three years after he was killed in a\u00a0wartime\u00a0plane crash in the South Pacific, the\u00a0remains of a World War II\u00a0airman\u00a0were finally returned to his native Brooklyn, giving his family the chance to gather for\u00a0his\u00a0funeral Mass on April 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Governale\u2019s\u00a0remains\u00a0were positively\u00a0identified\u00a0thanks to DNA, decades after his death.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think the impossible\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0happen,\u201d his nephew Edward Veneziano said. \u201cBut with divine intervention and technology and all those things working together, anything can happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the one thing we\u2019ve learned from all of this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Relatives of\u00a0Staff Sgt.\u00a0Governale\u00a0\u2014 many who are far too young to remember him,\u00a0but who grew up hearing\u00a0older relatives tell\u00a0stories about him\u00a0\u2014\u00a0were\u00a0joined by members of local chapters of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars\u00a0at the\u00a0funeral Mass at the Shrine\u00a0Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, at long last, he is home,\u201d said Msgr. Jamie\u00a0Gigantiello, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel<\/a>, who was the celebrant for the Mass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Governale was a 22-year-old gunner in the U.S.\u00a0Army Air Forces\u00a0when his\u00a0B-25C-1 bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff near Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on\u00a0July 10, 1943, killing\u00a0four of the five men\u00a0on board.\u00a0One\u00a0airman\u00a0managed to escape before the\u00a0plane sank into the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Monsignor Andrew Landi\u2019s Legacy \u2018Nuanced\u2019 for Global War Relief Efforts, Adoption Program\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. Navy\u00a0dispatched divers to search for the wreckage,\u00a0but the plane and\u00a0its\u00a0airmen\u00a0were not found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Governale\u2019s\u00a0family\u00a0was informed by letter that\u00a0he\u00a0was missing in action\u00a0and presumed dead. The U.S. military officially declared him \u201cnonrecoverable\u201d\u00a0in 1949.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0in 2022, thanks to technology\u00a0that was not available during World War II,\u00a0the Defense Department\u00a0POW\/MIA Accounting Agency and Project Recover, an organization dedicated to finding and\u00a0identifying\u00a0the remains of lost military servicemembers, recovered\u00a0remains\u00a0at the crash site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, Staff Sgt. Governale was positively identified after a DNA sample submitted by his sister, Marion Veneziano, years earlier was analyzed. She passed away in 2019 and never learned that he had been identified, according to her son Edward Veneziano. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Governale was a trained mechanic but decided to enlist in the army in 1939 at the age of 19 to serve his country. (Photo: Courtesy of Christina Mace)<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Governale\u2019s remains were returned to his relatives, who arranged for a funeral Mass and burial at Linden Hill United Methodist Cemetery in Ridgewood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means\u00a0so much to my family to be able to do this for him,\u201d said his grand-niece, Christina\u00a0Mace, who is a parishioner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. \u201cWe feel he can finally rest in\u00a0peace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the casket was carried from the church, military veterans formed an honor guard and saluted Staff Sgt. Governale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John\u00a0Pieprzak, a Marine veteran of Operation Desert Storm and a Veterans of Foreign Wars member, said\u00a0he wanted to pay tribute.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld War II vets always\u00a0hold\u00a0a special place in everyone\u2019s heart because they\u00a0are the\u00a0Greatest Generation. They\u00a0gave\u00a0the most,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, when you find someone who has been lost for so many\u00a0years, you\u00a0have\u00a0to\u00a0make a big deal out of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Lost WWII Purple Heart Medal Returns to NJ Family After 31 Years<\/a><\/p>\n

Sgt. Governale\u2019s parents and siblings are all\u00a0deceased,\u00a0but the younger members of his family grew up hearing stories about him,\u00a0Edward Veneziano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou certainly felt the love and the concern and the loss that our parents, our grandparents felt whenever they talked about him,\u201d he explained, adding that \u201cwe all had little Uncle Nick shrines in the house\u2026his picture was there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the older relatives passed away, the younger members relied on their Catholic faith and hoped that he would one day be returned\u00a0home. \u201cHis family that remained prayed and never forgot him,\u201d Msgr.\u00a0Gigantiello\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nicholas Governale was born on\u00a0July 26,\u00a01920,\u00a0and grew up in Bushwick. He was the eldest son of five siblings. He went to East New York Vocational High School to learn\u00a0to be a\u00a0mechanic,\u00a0but\u00a0dropped out at 16 to get a job\u00a0and\u00a0help support the family during the Great Depression.\u00a0In 1939, he joined the Army and trained as an Air Force gunner\u00a0before being\u00a0eventually\u00a0sent to the Pacific Theater, where he met his fate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was important to his family that Staff Sgt. Governale received\u00a0a Mass of Christian Burial, Edward Veneziano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the first things that we talked about when he was\u00a0identified\u00a0was\u00a0that he needs a Catholic burial,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0one of the sacrifices\u00a0he was denied,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0important\u00a0to\u00a0us to get it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pallbearers carry Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Governale\u2019s casket from the church to a waiting hearse for the journey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-211706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}