A World War II soldier has finally returned home to his Colorado home 80 years after being killed in combat overseas.
Staff Sergeant Harold Schaefer was killed in action in Germany in 1944 and was buried Monday morning at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver with full military honors, including bagpipes and a 21-gun salute. He was 28 years old.
The young soldier enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was deployed to Europe the following year as part of the 90th Infantry Division, which crossed the Saar River on December 6, 1944, and attempted to capture and hold the German towns of Pachten and Dillingen. According to the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Four days later, Schaefer was “mortally wounded” by machine gun fire, and his fellow soldiers were unable to recover his body and those of the others who were killed and instead moved to a safer area, the service said.
After the war, the United States Graves Registration Command conducted several surveys in the Pachten-Dillingen area between 1946 and 1950 to recover and identify the remains of soldiers from the Schaerter Division who were buried in a civilian cemetery in Laimsbach, Germany.
However, they were unable to match the body to the young soldier from Denver, and the body’s identity will not be confirmed until September 26, 2023, many years from now, officials reported.
Schaefer reportedly died in the trenches while trying to help a fellow soldier. CBS News reported..
“It was really heartbreaking, especially for my grandmother,” Schaefer’s niece, Barb Bernhardt, told the news station about his death. “She was never the same person she used to be.”
The family’s grief was compounded by the fact that they never got to bury Schaefer’s body.
It was a pleasant surprise to have it identified after so many years.
“I was really pleasantly surprised,” Barnhart told CBS.
She said Monday’s funeral gave the family relief and peace by finally being able to remember her uncle and lay him to rest.
“Grandma, we brought him home. He’s home. That’s what you always wanted, for him to come home,” Barnhart said.
