Sunday marked 84 years since the bombing of Pearl Harbor and a family in Texas has closure after the remains of their loved one was brought home.
Thanks to modern DNA testing, the military is able to identify remains and try to connect with loved ones to get the remains home.
Erik Young is is the pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, he is also a Navy chaplain. Part of his role as chaplain is to attend military funerals. He has also been asked to help bring remains home to a final resting place.
As Young explained, “To be able to help the family as they mourn this person and be able to honor them and their service and the fact we get to do this in peace here. It really is an important notion for us to do these funerals and be present in these funerals.”
Recently, Young made a trip from Pearl Harbor to Corpus Christi, Texas to bring home the remains of a loved one to their family.
According to Young, “I had the opportunity to be when the person who I just buried in Texas was exhumed and to get to be there and realize that person was finally named, we got to take him back to where he was from and lay him to rest there.”
As a navy chaplain, he said it’s an honor to be able to help provide comfort to a family whose been searching for answers for decades.
“They want closure, the want to be able to say I know where he is. That’s one thing the Garcia family, they did not have those answers. They knew he died in pearl harbor, they did not know where his remains were, if they were somewhere in the ocean, if they were old and laden and unknown. So to be able to take and be with his great niece and great nephew, to say, we know where he is now, and for the family to have a place to go and literal touch stone”, said Young.
He finds this work to be rewarding and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. As Young explained, “The good news for us is, no matter how long it takes, we will always get you home.”
This is the second set of remains Young has helped bring home from Pearl Harbor.
A special thank your to our NBC affiliate, kris in Corpus Christi, Texas for helping provide us with the video of Garcia’s funeral and homecoming.