Remains of WWII solder from Brooklyn returned home after 8 decades
More than eight decades later, Nicholas Governale's remains were flown back to New York City, where future generations that never got to meet him were able to lay him to rest with a mass and 21-gun salute.
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The remains of a World War II soldier from Brooklyn have returned home after decades.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Governale was killed in a crash off the Solomon Islands just 10 days before his 23rd birthday in July of 1943.
Governale's nephew, Anthony Veneziano, says the family never stopped thinking about him.
“It was something that was - it was - a chapter that was never closed for my family. It was a very painful story for them to tell. So there was always the hope because they never found him. That will maybe one day he would return," said Veneziano.
More than 80 years later, he did.
In 2000, Veneziano was watching a documentary about Project Recover, an organization that uses DNA technology to locate American service members missing in action.
“I'm thinking, you know, the plane that's not on land, it's in the ocean, in the South Pacific. What could they possibly find? So, but nonetheless, I called and they sent me the kit," said Veneziano.
Veneziano and his mother, Governale's sister, sent their DNA. Twenty-five years later, Veneziano got news he never expected to hear.
“We looked on this database. They said that they found Uncle Nick. And I said, ‘You've got to be kidding,’" said Veneziano.
More than eight decades later, Governale's remains were flown back to New York City, where future generations that never got to meet him were able to lay him to rest with a mass and 21-gun salute.
“It was surreal to be honest with you," said Veneziano.
Veneziano says family came from all around the country to be there. His mother passed six years ago, but he says it was the goodbye she and his grandparents had always longed for.
"Him coming home back to Brooklyn after 83 years, you know, it's a hard thing to wrap your brain around. To have him laid to rest with his mother, his father, his siblings, they're all together again," said Veneziano.
