New York City Soldier Lost in World War II Is Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Army Pfc. Bernard Gavrin was 29 when he was reported missing on July 7, 1944

An Army private who went missing in World War II was buried at Arlington National Cemetery after his remains were recovered seven decades later.

Bernard Gavrin of Brooklyn, New York, was 29 when he fought in the Battle of Saipan in the Pacific theater in 1944. Gavrin was reported missing in July 1944, after Japanese forces launched a suicide assault, known as a banzai attack, on Gavrin's unit, the 105th Infantry Regiment.

In recent years, excavations on Saipan by a Japanese nonprofit group have turned up the remains of American and Japanese soldiers.

Military officials say Gavrin's remains were uncovered last year and identified through dental records and a DNA analysis that matched Gavrin's nephew.

"The last time I saw him, I was 8 years old, living in Brooklyn in an apartment," said David Rogers, now 82 and living in Delray Beach, Florida. "He woke me up, kissed me on the forehead. That was the last time I ever saw him." 

"How many people in our great, great country, have this opportunity, 70 years later, to have closure?" he said. 

Gavrin was buried with full military honors. Rogers was given the flag that draped his uncle's coffin. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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