Bonnie McClure was only a younger woman when her uncle, Clifford Keeney, an Army Airman preventing in World Battle II, was shot down in Germany whereas on a mission in 1944. Keeney was listed as killed in motion, and he was buried in a cemetery by enemy forces in Germany.
Regardless of the obstacles, McClure vowed, at the same time as a teenager, to at some point carry her uncle house. She didn’t understand it will take greater than eight a long time.
Keeney’s stays had been lastly recovered, and the Army veteran was given a correct navy funeral in York, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 28. Whereas they painstakingly waited 81 years, the burial brings a measure of closure to Keeney’s household.
“It form of hit me… he’s lastly house,” McClure instructed Fox 43 News.
Keeney’s B-17 Flying Fortress, a well-liked plane utilized by the U.S. navy in World Battle II, was hit whereas flying over Germany, and the airman was killed on the tender age of 26. McClure has considered her uncle usually via the years, questioning what actually occurred to him. Even after Keeney’s stays had been recognized, and McClure was notified, all of it didn’t appear actual till McClure noticed her uncle’s casket, American flag draped proudly throughout the highest, that it lastly hit her – Uncle Clifford was house.
“It’s very surreal but to this second. Once I noticed the coffin, it form of hit me slightly bit,” McClure mentioned.
DNA Solves the Thriller
A breakthrough in Keeney’s case got here in June when, via state-of-the-art DNA evaluation, his stays had been recognized by the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company. Realizing that fashionable scientific strategies might assist lastly remedy the thriller of what occurred to him, Keeney’s household submitted samples 35 years in the past within the early days of DNA testing. Whereas the wait was agonizing at instances, their prayers had been lastly answered. His story is full.
McClure greeted mourners, a lot of whom by no means knew Keeney, as they filed into Christ Lutheran Church Cemetery in rural York County. McClure smiled, enthusiastic about how she was capable of preserve her promise. To her uncle. To her household. And he or she was nonetheless alive to see a day she thought at instances would possibly by no means come.
“And I noticed he’s lastly house the place he must be,” McClure mentioned.
Nonetheless Many Left to Discover
Keeney’s funeral service included a rifle salute, and a folded American flag was introduced to his niece. Some family members attending the service had by no means met earlier than however got here to offer one closing salute to Airman Keeney, a workers sergeant, who made the final word sacrifice for our nation.
“I bought to fulfill some second and third cousins that I didn’t even know existed,” McClure mentioned. “This has been beautiful, and I actually recognize everyone displaying up for this.”
The ceremony was additionally bittersweet as McClure thought of her grandmother, Keeney’s mom, who went to her grave by no means figuring out what occurred to her son.
“It’s a giant reduction and an ideal satisfaction that my grandmom is lastly glad,” McClure mentioned.
“She’s comfortable now, and he or she is aware of I adopted via all these years.”
In line with the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company, greater than 72,000 U.S. troopers from World Battle II are nonetheless unaccounted for. The company started its work on Jan. 30, 2015, when the Protection POW/Lacking Personnel Workplace merged with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command division. In 2024, the company reported that 172 service members had been recognized in that 12 months alone, together with 135 World Battle II troopers.
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