JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A family from Valdosta, Georgia, is celebrating after the remains of their loved one, World War II soldier Mack Homer, landed at the Jacksonville International Airport on Friday.
Homer died on July 7, 1944, just a month after D-Day in Normandy, France. The U.S. Department of Defense says it happened after an explosion caved in on the roof of an enemy bunker they were clearing out.
Barbara Foulkes, Homer’s niece, is his oldest living relative.
“I was seven years old at the time that he went into service during the year of 1943,” Foulkes said. “From that year on, I never had any contact with my uncle because he was killed in 1944.”
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Homer was just 20 years old when he died.
“I just recall that my dad, when he was told the news, he was embittered by it, and I can understand because it’s his younger brother,” Foulkes said. “It’s hard to speak of, especially with my grandmother. I can only imagine what she and her other children felt about him being lost.”
For more than eight decades, Homer’s remains went unidentified. In fact, his remains were declared “non-recoverable” in 1951 after officers with the Association of Governance, Risk & Compliance reviewed his case.
That is, until Foulkes says she was contacted by a military organization in 2017. She says it took the DNA of three of her cousins and her late brother to finally positively identify one of eight human remains found in the bunker.
Now, after 83 years, Homer was finally able to return home to the States.
“To hear the fact that he has finally been identified is just overwhelming for the whole family, and we’ve been just speechless, but delighted that he’s been found, identified, and is being brought home shows that the country hasn’t forgotten him.”
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Antonio Harrington, the owner of Harrington Funeral Home and long-time friend of the family, says he was there to witness the moment Homer’s remains touched down at JIA.
“I think it’s just a great honor because he’s done something great for our country,” Harrington said. “I take my hats off to the United States of America for never giving up.”
Foulkes’ daughter, Robin, wants to remind people that generational wealth is about family, not money.
“It’s built on family contacts, your association, your history, and your willingness to pass that on to the next generation or the generation that will listen,” Robin said. “Remember, that’s generational wealth — that’s what makes you rich. It’s the ties that you have that bind you together as a family. The money, that’s secondary.”
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Varmira Landfair, the executive director at the Military Museum of North Florida, says she’s looking forward to displaying his photo in the museum.
“He was helping us obtain our freedom, even though there was segregation there,” Landfair said. “He still did his job honorably and proudly, so I’m so happy for his family, and they can finally bring him home and lay him down to rest.”
Homer’s funeral service will be held by Harrington Funeral Home in Tallahassee at noon on Friday.
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