New Orleans: Pvt Earl Joseph Keating, a soldier who was killed in 1942 during World War II, finally came home in New Orleans after his remains were discovered on the Pacific island.
Recounting this long journey in the making is his nephew, Nadau “du Treil” Michael Keating Jr, who was only 6 months old at the time of his 28-year-old uncle’s death.
Keating Jr’s grandmother, while on her deathbed, had requested him to find Earl.
“She said ‘I want you to remember to please find Earl with your Dad. Help your dad find Earl,” remembers Keating Jr, although he was just 12-years-old then.
Pvt Keating had died repelling the onslaughts by the Japanese while he, along with his group was manning the roadblock.
Another brave-heart from New Orleans, Pvt John H Kloop died in the attack. Fellow soldiers buried them together.
However, Keating’s mother could never accept the loss of one of her three sons. She kept writing to the military to find her son’s remains.
It wasn’t until decades later that Keating Jr, who lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, was able to answer her request with the help of villagers in Papua New Guinea.
A villager out hunting came across the remains of the two men and some personal effects.
“He dug around and found a helmet and some artefacts such as the dog tags,” said Tyler Lege, Michael Keating’s young nephew.
The discovered remains and effects were eventually passed along to the US military, which sent a team to investigate.
To help identify Keating’s remains, the US military needed more DNA, said Keating, a search that eventually led him about a year and a half ago to Tulane University where he tracked down a cousin, Sue duTreil.
Both she and her brothers also provided DNA samples and eventually the military was able to positively identify the remains.
“I’m so glad that he’s getting the attention that he deserves. He went through a lot from what we’ve learned,” said Sue duTreil.
“I wasn’t born yet when Earl died and du Treil was only 6 months old but somehow we have become the ones to help bring him home,” she added.
The remains were met at the airport by family and a U.S. military honour guard.
In an extensively planned ceremony to honour the long-lost relative on May 28, Keating Jr plans to read a letter written by his father to Pvt Keating, who wasn’t able to read it because he died before it arrived. Instead the letter was stamped “Deceased” and returned to sender.
After the funeral service, the soldier’s remains will be driven by the city’s World War II museum where the American flag will be lowered to half-staff and taps sounded before the procession continues to the cemetery.
“It’s a lifelong promise of my parents and my grandparents and it’s being completed and it’s a great, great honour for me to be able to do this,” said Keating Jr.
