After Barbara Dyer of Chisago Metropolis, Minn., died at age 86 in 2019, her household buried her on the Fairview Cemetery in Lindstrom.
4 years later, her household gathered once more as Dyer’s brother, U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Arthur Ervin Jr., was laid to relaxation on the Nationwide Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii — although he died 75 years earlier than his sister at age 22 throughout World Warfare II on July 5, 1944.
It was a long-awaited service — with full navy honors — and Dyer’s household wished she may have lived lengthy sufficient to witness this patriotic sense of closure.
As a substitute, Dyer had spent her life questioning if her brother’s stays would ever be discovered, recognized and returned. She died with these questions nonetheless unanswered.
“It broke my heart that …” mentioned Dyer’s daughter, Nita Kay Homosexual (who additionally goes by Nita Kay), pausing for composure.
“… It was emotional … the question was always lingering in her head … but, the job was done in both Barbara and Arthur’s honor.”
Not forgotten
Till his physique was lastly recognized, Ervin was one of many 1000’s of navy personnel nonetheless lacking from World Warfare II. At present, the misplaced or unidentified totals greater than 74,000, in response to the the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company (DPAA).
To place that quantity in perspective, it’s roughly equal to the inhabitants of Lakeville.
It’s a scale of loss a lot bigger than these lacking from different conflicts, together with greater than 5,000 from the Korean Warfare and greater than 1,500 from the Vietnam Warfare.
Whereas a few of the misplaced will possible by no means get to come back dwelling — resembling those that died at sea — there are numerous whose stays have been recognized in latest occasions, particularly because of technological advances.
In Ervin’s case, the doggedness of volunteer researchers and the persistence of members of the family have been additionally key in transferring the method alongside to lastly convey this Marine dwelling.
With these mixed efforts, Ervin grew to become one of many 166 service members recognized throughout the fiscal 12 months of 2022. In 2023, 158 have been accounted for; throughout this fiscal 12 months, which ends in September, 109 extra folks have had their lacking instances resolved, in response to the DPAA, which is tasked with accounting for the misplaced.
“There are so many missing from wars and conflicts, our job is unfortunately never going to be done,” mentioned Sean Everette, a spokesperson for the DPAA. “But we will never give up trying to find them and bring them back home to their families.”
A researcher’s private connection
It was Ervin’s case that led Geoffrey Roecker of Glen Falls, N.Y., to discovered Lacking Marines, an award-winning and extremely detailed initiative and web site (missingmarines.com) devoted to preserving the tales of lacking service members.
“I’ve been at it since 2011,” Roecker mentioned.
His initiative additionally offers analysis help to a number of MIA restoration organizations and to households hoping to study their navy ancestors.
This consists of the household of Ervin, who shared a reference to considered one of Roecker’s ancestors: Ervin’s platoon chief, 1st Lt. Philip Emerson Wooden Jr., is Roecker’s first cousin, twice eliminated.
“Geoff deserves a lot of credit,” mentioned Kay. “This never would have been resolved without his help.”
“She downplays her role, but she did a ton of work,” Roecker replied of Kay.
Kay’s uncle and Roecker’s cousin have been buddies in addition to comrades; buddies and comrades who died collectively.
In July of 1944, Ervin and Wooden have been members of Firm A, 1st Battalion, twenty fourth Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, which the DPAA describes as a part of the invasion pressure of the island of Saipan in a bigger effort to seize the Mariana Islands from Japan.
From his analysis, Roecker realized that the Marines have been attempting to rescue displaced civilians on July 5, 1944. However then, Lt. Wooden was hit by a sniper.
As Wooden, mortally wounded, cried out, Ervin rushed ahead to assist him — and, whereas doing so, was fatally shot by enemy fireplace.
“He was likely dead before he hit the ground,” Roecker wrote on Lacking Marines.
However what occurred to Ervin’s physique?
That’s been the query that Roecker spent 11 years attempting to reply.
X-64
“Sgt. Ervin’s case is a particularly weird one,” Roecker mentioned not too long ago.
He mused in regards to the thriller in a weblog submit on Memorial Day 2018.
“Arthur Ervin was buried without any means of identification,” he wrote. “Through a clerical error or simple incompetence, he was listed as ‘missing,’ his remains declared ‘unknown,’ and buried under an anonymous stone in Manila.”
Roecker credit a fellow researcher, Ted Darcy, who helped him find the location in 2011. It appeared like a comparatively easy case to crack, given all that was already recognized in regards to the battle, the useless and the buried.
“He said, ‘I think we can solve this one right away,’” Roecker recalled.
Not fairly.
However, Roecker says, after an investigation together with dental data, diagrams, information and DNA, it was believed that an unidentified service member referred to as X-64 was Ervin.
DNA
He wasn’t X-64 to Dyer; to her, he was “Big Brother.”
Technically, they have been half-siblings: Their mom, a widow, was elevating her three sons — together with Arthur — on her personal earlier than remarrying and having two extra kids, together with Barbara Dyer.
Dyer was simply 7 years outdated when “Big Brother” enlisted within the navy from their then-home state of Texas in June 1940, in response to Lacking Marines; by October, he had joined the Marine detachment of the Naval Air Station, Pearl Harbor.
Dyer was 11 when her household realized her brother had been killed in motion. She didn’t speak in regards to the loss a lot, however in her later years, she renewed the search to convey Large Brother dwelling.
“She was not so good with the internet, but she found out how to contact someone and they did send her a DNA kit,” Kay recalled.
Ultimately, the household realized {that a} DNA pattern from a male family member was wanted; it took time to achieve out — and persuade — a male cousin in California to become involved, Kay says.
Throughout their seek for a conclusion, the household realized extra about Ervin’s life in addition to his demise.
“When I began helping my mother, a friend had found out about the Missing Marines site,” Kay mentioned. “From it, I learned more about my mother’s family than she had ever told me.”
Actually, Ervin’s life story on the location — helped together with interviews, navy data, household pictures, newspaper clippings and extra — is as detailed as a novella, stretching again to explain the historical past of Ervin’s dad and mom in addition to his personal backstory.
The story begins:
“Arthur B. Ervin, Junior was six months old when his father died in the mines …”
The trouble impressed Kay.
“It was just amazing, all the information he had,” she mentioned. “It motivated me to move forward.”
By means of Lacking Marines, the household realized how their Marine survived the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 — and the way he matured throughout this time and was given a second likelihood after allegedly working afoul of the legislation.
“The day Pearl Harbor was attacked,” Kay wrote in an e mail to the Pioneer Press, “Arthur was within the brink and within the technique of being dishonorably discharged. After volunteering to dig up bombs that had been dropped however didn’t but explode, he had a follow-up court docket date. To his shock, he was supplied to hitch the Marines once more primarily based on his volunteerism and work ethics.
“He went on to earn two Purple Hearts and the Navy Gold Cross. Even a Good Behavior ribbon.”
Throughout this lengthy technique of looking and researching, although, Kay’s mom died. Quickly after, COVID-19 hit.
“The government pretty much shut down,” Kay mentioned.
Lastly
The cellphone name that the household had been ready for since 1944 — 78 years — lastly got here in 2022.
“They called and said, ‘We have a match,’” Kay recalled of the cellphone name from the navy. “They said, ‘We’ve identified him.’”
Her response?
“I cried,” she mentioned.
One of many first folks she alerted was Roecker. He was additionally invited by the household to the funeral in Hawaii, which was held in October 2023.
Later, he wrote about it in a poem-like submit on the Lacking Marines web page on Fb:
Twenty-one pictures rang out. Ospreys thundered overhead. Faucets sounded.(You’ll be able to’t not tear up if the bugler is aware of what they’re doing,and by god this one did.)
For about 5 minutes,I instructed what I knew about Arthur.It wasn’t every part. It’s going to by no means be every part. However —It was an ending.Of a life story, and a life quest.
Arthur’s the place he must be —shouting distance, at the least, from three who died with him;Wooden, Knight, and Hester.
And we who stay,who by no means thought at the present time would come,loved a day within the Hawaiian solarwith him.
A reminiscence on a mantel
On Friday — the eightieth anniversary of Ervin’s demise — his 13-year-old great-niece, Lilly, mirrored on her household’s journey from Saipan to Chisago Metropolis to Honolulu:
“I felt honored to be part of Arthur’s funeral,” she mentioned in a textual content message. “It was an incredible expertise.
“I used to be additionally so completely satisfied to see Mother accomplish this. She labored for years looking for Arthur for Grandma and sometimes cried hitting roadblocks.
“I didn’t realize just how big this was until the actual funeral … to see someone buried as a hero and receive the honors he did was amazing.”
Now a few of these honors are framed in a shadow field, together with a folded U.S. flag and Ervin’s navy medals. The field is displayed on the hearth mantel of the lake dwelling the place Kay lives together with her husband and two of their kids in Chisago Metropolis.
This dwelling was additionally the homestead of Dyer and her late husband, who moved right here after they retired, so it feels proper to maintain Ervin’s keepsakes in a distinguished spot.
“She used to say, ‘I wonder if we’ll ever find out, I still wonder what happened to my brother,’” Kay mentioned. “I’m glad now we have closure, however I definitely want it had occurred earlier than she handed.
“But I know they were reunited in Heaven.”
