![\"Ed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e10fc6e0-d31b-470d-98c4-cdb0fb15b09a_1755931569.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWorld War II veteran honored, brought back to Pennsylvania after 81 years<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stephen Fatur was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania before he joined the U.S. military during World War II. <\/p>\n
In 1945, according to military officials, the 19-year-old died as a tail gunner on a B-17G Flying Fortress on a bombing mission near Glinica, Poland. His plane was shot down by German fighter planes.<\/p>\n
For more than eight decades, his family, who called the staff sergeant \u201cJohnny,\u201d didn\u2019t know if he would ever make it back home to Slickville, Pennsylvania, which is in Westmoreland County \u2014 around 29 miles from Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was always something missing in our family,\u201d Kristen Barnett, one of Fatur\u2019s nieces, said. \u201cHe was the missing piece. We always had his picture up. It wasn\u2019t Johnny. He wasn\u2019t distant. He was Uncle Johnny.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barnett is the youngest niece of the late Westmoreland County war hero. Cheryl Lutz is the oldest niece. However, neither of them knew their uncle before he passed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew him through our mother and grandmother,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cEven as a young child, we grieved with them when they were grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n
All that the living family members have to remember Fatur by are the stories told by their elders. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey told stories and talked about when Delmont had a parade in 1945 when the war was over,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t participate because of their grief.\u201d <\/p>\n
Monday morning, instead of a parade, after 81 years, the family participated in a procession honoring the late hero in the streets of Delmont. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is history in the making,\u201d Terry Valore, a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran from Slickville, said. \u201cI remember what it was like when I got to come home. If you were a soldier or a soldier boy, you would want this kind of turnout. He was a kid when he left. He was a kid when he died. He\u2019s finally coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local veterans, residents, and family members of Fatur lined the streets as the Slickville native\u2019s remains were brought back after being identified through DNA testing earlier this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was contacted, as the oldest, and told that his remains had been positively identified through the DNA analysis,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cThe POW\/MIA Accounting Agency contacted my mother for her DNA [in 2017]. They\u2019re actively searching for remains all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gratitude from the community was felt on the ride to Fatur\u2019s final resting place. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us in the car were crying,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cIt was overwhelming to see the support.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fatur returned home with full military honors. He was brought to Twin Valley Memorial Park by a meaningful relative. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy son, who is in the Navy, was the special escort who brought him home,\u201d Barnett said. \u201cWe\u2019re a military family. Thank you just doesn\u2019t seem like enough to everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n
As Staff Sgt. Johnny\u2019s family finally has closure, they want other military families to not lose hope. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo soldier gets left behind,\u201d Barnett said. \u201cThey are going to keep searching until everyone is brought home. My heart grieves for everyone who doesn\u2019t have closure because we have it now. He\u2019s home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Twin Valley Memorial Park in Delmont, Pennsylvania, is close to 10 minutes from Staff Sgt. Fatur\u2019s hometown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World War II veteran honored, brought back to Pennsylvania after 81 years Stephen Fatur was born and raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101795,46181,7469,109835,109833,109829,46685,8589,4424,109838,13443,2252,28,30,29,73,109834,55399,109830,109828,109832,109836,2349,109837,1419,5910,16488,46385,109831],"class_list":["post-258780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-b-17g-flying-fortress","tag-delmont","tag-dna-testing","tag-full-military-honors","tag-glinica-poland","tag-johnny-fatur","tag-jsnd","tag-memorial","tag-military","tag-military-family","tag-obit","tag-obituary","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pow-mia-accounting-agency","tag-slickville","tag-staff-sgt-fatur","tag-stephen-fatur","tag-tail-gunner","tag-twin-valley-memorial-park","tag-veterans","tag-war-hero","tag-western-pennsylvania","tag-westmoreland-county","tag-world-war-ii","tag-wwii","tag-wwii-veteran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}