SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The burial, with full military honors for World War II veteran Helmut Fred Behlert, is a homecoming that almost didn’t happen.
U.S. Marine PFC Behlert was buried on Wednesday at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California, about 14 miles south-west of San Francisco, roughly 80 years after he was killed in the line of duty.
Ruth Green, his niece and closest surviving relative, finally reunited with her beloved uncle when his remains were flown to San Francisco on May 14 with military honors.
“I wanted to see the plane come in. You know, that’s what I wanted to see,” Green said. She showed up with an oxygen tube on her face, having just recovered from pneumonia, and determined to see him.
Missing for more than 80 years
World War II veteran Helmut Fred Behlert was killed in action in 1944.
Behlert was killed in action on June 15, 1944, during a boat landing in Saipan, when troops were attacked in a barrage of gunfire. The 27-year-old Marine from Utah was reportedly killed by shrapnel wounds to his head. His remains were never identified. His family never received his body.
Green says she remembers eating ice cream with her uncle and playing games.
Posthumously, PFC Behlert was awarded five medals, a Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation, a Combat Action Ribbon, and a Purple Heart.
But it is her uncle’s generous heart Belert showed to his family, that Green remembers best.
Mother before marriage
“I just wish he could have come back and married his high school sweetheart,” Green said. “They were going to get married and then when he enlisted, he told his girlfriend he wanted to make sure his mother was protected.”
Behlert postponed his marriage, so if he died in battle, his mother would receive the money.
A DNA clue matches the missing
At a memorial Wednesday, his relatives explained how they heard in 2001 in advice columnist Ann Landers’ article that new DNA testing could help identify remains of the missing.
Green’s brother, Leo M. Houweling, who was Behlert’s nephew, immediately submitted a DNA sample.
It was a spark of hope, and they waited.
Behlert’s mother, brother and sister had all died.
And then, last December, some 25 years later, Green got word there was finally a match.
“You know the old adage in the military is leave no soldier behind and this was a great example of what our country can do,” former Congresswoman Jackie Speier said. “There’s a whole agency called the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and it does this all the time.”
According to the US Department of War, more than 80,000 U.S. service members are still missing or unidentified. The Armed Forces DNA laboratory hopes to continue doing their work to reunite remains with their families.
“What made this so touching is we brought someone home who was lost in effect,” Speier said.
A memorial service was held in Daly City at the Duggan’s funeral home, followed by a police-escorted motorcade procession to the Golden Gate National Ceremony.
At the chapel, there was a military ceremony, including a gun salute and the playing of Taps.
PFC Behlert received a headstone bearing his name. A man once lost but now found.
And finally at home.
