SHAWANO (NBC 26) — The remains of Herbert McLaughlin, a World War II airman killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, have finally returned to his hometown of Shawano, Wisconsin, more than 80 years after his death.
Watch the Freedom Riders bring Herbert's body home in the video below:
On Wednesday evening, a group of Freedom Riders and an honor guard escorted McLaughlin's remains to the Swedberg Funeral Home in Shawano, marking the end of a decades-long journey home.
Though McLaughlin has been gone from Shawano for more than 80 years, he was never forgotten. The local Veterans of Foreign Wars post bears his name and now houses his Purple Heart, which was turned over last month by McLaughlin's great-nephew, Dean Seher.
Family lore about McLaughlin's final days was confirmed during the identification process.
"The oral history was that he had been playing volleyball with his buddies on the night of December 6th and broke his nose and had been taken to the hospital at Pearl Harbor the night before the attack," Seher said.
When Seher asked officials who confirmed his great uncle's identity if this story was true, he received validation.
"I said, can you tell me if he had a broken nose? And initially the woman said 'no, I don't recall that.' And then I told them the story. She went back and looked she goes, 'Oh my gosh, he did have a broken nose,'" Seher said.
McLaughlin's remains had spent decades in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii before DNA from a distant cousin, Susan Swinick, helped confirm his identity this year.
After landing in Milwaukee Wednesday afternoon, where Swinick greeted the remains, McLaughlin was transported to Shawano.
"It's quite a story when your namesake is returned from Pearl Harbor to Shawano," said Phillip Nelson, Herbert E. McLaughlin VFW Post Quartermaster.
For Saturday's funeral procession, Nelson says McLaughlin's remains will be carried down Fifth Street in a horse-drawn military wagon, followed by a riderless horse, similar to funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.
"This is going to be a special occasion [for] which we're pulling out all the stops. We're trying to replicate what they do in Arlington as much as we possibly can," Nelson said.
With McLaughlin's identity confirmed, his surviving relatives say they feel a sense of closure for McLaughlin's mother, who wrote letters to the War Department begging for her son's body to be identified and brought home.
The VFW hopes the community will come out to pay their respects Saturday at 10:30 a.m. as McLaughlin's remains are brought from the funeral home down Fifth Street to the cemetery where he will be finally laid to rest at 11.
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