VIDALIA, Ga. - Pvt. Odell Sharpe returned home to Georgia in a flag-draped casket on Friday, nearly 60 years after he was presumed killed in action along the Belgian-German border during one of the biggest battles of World War II.
It was an emotional homecoming for Sharpe's surviving siblings, who last saw their oldest brother during a 10-day leave in 1944 before he was shipped overseas.
The Army machine gunner was presumed killed a few months later - around Christmas Day - during the Allies' forced retreat under German tank fire in the Battle of the Bulge. He was 19.
The military stunned Sharpe's family last month with word his remains had been found in September 2003 by a Belgian search team in what appeared to be a foxhole. A shaving kit, a broken comb and dog tags were with his skeleton, and forensic specialists made sure the bones and teeth matched Sharpe's records.
"It's something I never, ever expected. When they brought his casket out the (hearse) door, I said to myself, 'Welcome home, brother,"' said Sharpe's 71-year-old sister, Mary Miller.
Sharpe's casket was flown to Georgia on Friday from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, where the identification was made.
The family planned to bury Sharpe next to his parents Sunday in Dead River Cemetery near their hometown of Uvalda, a farming community 15 miles south of Vidalia. He will be buried with full military honors.
Eighteen months ago, three Belgian civilians conducting a World War II recovery search for the non-governmental 99th Infantry Division Association uncovered Sharpe's remains. By December, the Army had notified Sharpe's three surviving siblings.
It's not unusual to recover the remains of World War II soldiers six decades later. More than 100 a year are found. But thousands more are unaccounted for.
