KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV/Gray News) – The remains of a World War II soldier from Missouri were finally welcomed home more than 80 years after his death.
A plane carrying the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Simon Garelick, of St. Joseph, Missouri, landed at Kansas City International Airport with his family standing nearby.
Garelick’s niece, Carol Brooks, was there when the plane landed.
“It’s like something you’ve never seen,” she said. “I’ve never seen any casket come off the plane, let alone one that’s carrying my uncle. I’m glad he is here. This is where he needs to be.”
Garelick was captured while serving and died a prisoner of war during the war. He was accounted for decades later on Oct. 7, 2024.
“He was very warm and very kind, and he wanted to go into the military,” Brooks said. “When I was born, I was bald. He nicknamed me Baldie, and he called me that until he left.”
Garelick was in the Philippines during the war when Japanese forces invaded in December 1941.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and put into Japanese camps. Garelick was one of them.
The prisoners of war were forced to walk the 65-mile Bataan Death March.
Garelick died from an infection on Nov. 4, 1942.
To identify his remains, investigators said they used dental and anthropological analysis. The Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and genome sequencing.
“So now we’re laying him to rest with the family, and we can find some peace,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the Army kept her updated on their investigation into identifying Garelick’s remains her whole life.
The family plans to lay Garelick to rest on Sunday.
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