. (WYMT) – Deborah Elam and her family received a call earlier this year from the military about a near six-year effort to identify and return the remains of Reuben Smiddy, a World War II soldier killed overseas.
“Think about the military calling you and saying ‘hey, we found this, we’re going to do this. Are you ready?’” Elam, Smiddy’s great-great niece, said.
Elam said the military found remains in the Philippines and requested DNA from the family.
“They found remains in the Philippines, and they wanted DNA,” Elam said. “And this year, they called and said they confirmed that it was Reuben Smiddy, and it was his remains.”
Burial set for Saturday
Smiddy will be laid to rest alongside his family in Laurel County on Saturday, 84 years after his death.
Peter Elam III, Deborah’s husband, said the family is glad to bury Smiddy with relatives he knew.
“This is really cool, this is going to be somebody that was lost and had no idea where this person was, has now been found, positively identified, and gets to come home,” Peter Elam III said. “I think it’s a wonderful story.”
One of many lost overseas
Smiddy was one of many American soldiers lost in 1942 in the Philippines.
“There were like 63 sets of remains there, and his was one of them,” Deborah Elam said. “But they didn’t know he was there until after the war, when the POWs came out with their list of who had died and where they were at the time.”
Family members are traveling to Eastern Kentucky for the burial from across the nation.
“We’ve got flowers … it’s our decoration day,” Deborah Elam said. “He’s coming in a coffin, he will have a military uniform in the coffin, his remains will be put in a wool blanket with a gold pin on it.”
The family says the public is welcome to attend. The military-led ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. at Andes Cemetery.