SHAWANO (NBC 26) — After more than 80 years, the remains of a World War II airman killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor are finally coming home to Wisconsin.
See photos of Herbert and meet his relatives in the video below:
Herbert McLaughlin's remains, unidentified for decades, will arrive in Milwaukee on Wednesday before being transported to his final resting place in Shawano. We first told you about Herbert in May, with the help of members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Shawano, which bears Herbert's name.
The identification process began in 2018, when McLaughlin's distant cousin, Susan Swinick, received a letter asking for her DNA to help identify his remains, which had been in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific — known as the Punchbowl — in Honolulu, Hawaii, since 1947.
Swinick was the only relative who could help, because the DNA needed to confirm his identity could only be traced through the mother's side of the family.
"From the get-go, I felt like if this were my son, I would want him located by me, Swinick said. "I was given the Army file and all his mother's letters, which would have been my great-great aunt, and it broke my heart reading her letters to the Army, pleading with them to bring her son home. So, I've always felt as a mother, I'm doing it for her."
Swinick will be at the Milwaukee airport on Wednesday when McLaughlin's body arrives and is driven to Shawano, escorted by a military honor guard and a group of Freedom Riders.
"I'll probably just cry like a baby for her, because it isn't about me. I just provided the link," Swinick said.
Speaking of links, this year, Swinick first heard about McLaughlin's identity being confirmed from her third cousin — McLaughlin's great nephew, Dean Seher — whom she had never met before.
"I think it's a great tribute to, you know, the memory of somebody who made the ultimate sacrifice that allows us to live the way we live, and these people should not be forgotten," Seher said.
The funeral procession on Saturday starts at 10:30 a.m., beginning at the Swedberg Funeral Home and leading to the burial ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery at 11:00. VFW members hope the community will come out to pay their respects as McLaughlin is finally, truly, laid to rest.
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