A soldier killed in World War II while serving with a New York National Guard unit will be buried Friday at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., a year after his remains were found on a Pacific island.
Pfc. Bernard Gavrin of Brooklyn, N.Y., was with the 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, during combat on Saipan in the summer of 1944. He was reported missing in action July 7, according to a Defense Department release cited by Army Times. One year later, he was listed as dead along with 21 other soldiers from the regiment who had been missing.
His remains were considered “nonrecoverable” in 1948. But the remains of another soldier from the same outfit were discovered in September 2011 and later identified as belonging to Pvt. William Yawney of Freemansburg, Pa. He was laid to rest in May at a church cemetery in Northampton, Pa.
A Japanese organization trying to find the bodies of Japanese soldiers worked near the same sight in September 2013 and found the remains and personal effects of several Americans buried in an unmarked grave.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Library identified Gavrin’s remains through “circumstantial and forensic identification tools,” including dental comparisons and DNA matching.
David Rogers, 82, a nephew, will attend the burial of Gavrin. He remembers when the telegram with the news of his uncle’s death was opened by Gavrin’s mother. “She let out a scream that lives with me to this day,” he said.
