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Brisbane ceremony honors veterans as family recounts WWII airman’s long repatriation
Summary
At a Brisbane City Veterans Day ceremony, officials and community members honored local veterans while a relative recounted how the Department of Defense’s accounting office identified and returned a World War II airman after decades missing in action.
Brisbane City held a Veterans Day ceremony that honored local service members and featured a family account of a World War II airman’s recovery and repatriation.
The moderator opened the event by thanking veterans and uniformed city staff, saying “Freedom is not free,” and introducing city leaders in attendance. The moderator described how the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) located remains believed to be of a U.S. airman whose aircraft was shot down in Germany in 1944 and said the remains were identified and repatriated to the Bay Area for a military interment earlier this year.
Janice, a Brisbane resident and relative of the airman, told attendees she had not known her uncle but described the family’s long wait and the DPAA’s work that led to identification after DNA sampling from living relatives. “I was very touched by it all,” Janice said of the military honors and community turnout at Golden Gate National Cemetery. She thanked officials and the government for their work in locating and returning her relative’s remains.
The moderator provided context on missing-in-action figures during the remarks, saying there remain roughly 81,000 service members listed as MIA across conflicts, and that “about 71,000” are from World War II, “roughly 7,800” from the Korean War and “about 1,500” from Vietnam. The ceremony noted that DPAA, established in the years after the Vietnam War and associated with the Paris Peace Accord era, continues to work on accounting for missing personnel.
Kathy Wall performed the national anthem for the assembled crowd, after which the moderator gave brief closing remarks and invited attendees to enjoy coffee and donuts. The event was ceremonial; no formal council votes or agenda items were discussed or acted upon during the ceremony.
The city introduced several officials present during the event, including Mayor Cliff Lutz, former Mayor Karen Cunningham and City Manager Jeremy Dennis, and recognized local emergency personnel and a volunteer of the year named Sebastian.
