Young soldier from Boston missing in World War II identified 79 years later

A U.S. Army soldier from Massachusetts reported missing in action while his unit was involved in fighting against German forces in Italy during World War II has been accounted for, the military said.

The remains of Pvt. Wing O. Hom, of Boston, were identified in April using both anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Tuesday.

Hom, 20, went missing in February 1944 during fighting near the town of Cisterna di Latina, south of Rome.

A member of Company B, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division, Hom's body was not recovered and he was never reported as a prisoner of war, officials said. He was declared dead in February 1945.

A set of remains recovered near the hamlet of Ponte Rotto, about 3 miles west of Cisterna di Latina, could not be identified and were ultimately buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.

Those remains were disinterred and sent for analysis and identification in 2021 after a DPAA historian studying unresolved American losses during the Italian campaign determined they possibly belonged to Hom.

Hom will be buried in Brooklyn, New York, on Oct. 11, the DPAA said.

Government figures show that more than 72,000 World War II soldiers are still missing.

Since 2015, the DPAA has identified nearly 1,200 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, using remains returned from 45 countries. One of those bodies was that of Judy Wade's uncle, who was finally identified 73 years after his death. 

Army Corporal Luther Story, her uncle, was killed on Sept. 1, 1950, in Korea. During one battle he killed or wounded 100 enemy soldiers, according to his Army citation. The 18-year-old died protecting his unit, earning him the Medal of Honor. But for decades, his remains went unidentified -- until this year.

"It was like every brain cell I had like, exploded in my head," Wade told CBS News. "My whole body (skipped a beat). I always had a fantasy when I was a child that he really hadn't died. That somehow he had survived and someone had taken care of him. He was going to come home. Well, he's coming home now." 

In:
• World War II
• DNA