D Day

Nearly 70 years later, he went to fight in the second world war, the remains of the body of marine Pfc. John a. Donovan of Plymouth were finally returned Wednesday to his native Michigan and sat down to rest with his family Friday in a cemetery in Washerwomen County.

His nephew Tim Donovan of Fowler ville allowed the aircraft arrived at the airport in Hawaii Metro take the remains of his uncle.

"Is an exciting time, but a lesson in the experience of humility at the same time," said Tim Donovan, a veterinarian for the air force, only hours before the arrival of the aircraft.

Add that meaning to a marine world is still on 6 June. Wednesday was the anniversary of the d-day invasion of Normandy, where 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in France against the Nazis in 1944. Two months later, the plan of John Donovan has disappeared in the South Pacific.

John Donovan grew up in the Plymouth area as one of six children. He had only graduated Plymouth high school in 1942 when it decides to join the Marines.

Two years later, he and six other members of the squadron of bombers that vmb423 off for a training mission on the island in the South Pacific, of the Holy Spirit - the largest island in what is now the nation of Vanuatu - during a storm on the night of April 23, 1944. Never returned. Donovan was 20.

Reports said that PBJ1 aircraft crashed on the side of a mountain on the island. The seven were declared missing in action and presumed dead.

An expectation of 50 years

Is only 50 years after the crash that has found a private investigation team that was looking for another aircraft with debris, causing a full investigation.

Several years later, an investigation team went to the site, which was at an altitude of 2,600 metres of very rugged terrain and determines that the recovery teams needed training security specialized mountain complete a recovery mission, according to the Ministry of defence.

Joint command of the accountant, POW / MIA, which was established on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, in 2003 - performs global search and recovery operations to identify unexplained Americans of past conflict. A research of the JPAC team was sent to the remote site of the Holy Spirit and recovered human remains.

Recovery of 2009 of JPAC-11, several teams searched the site and additional remains, with dog recovered military equipment and aircraft parts. After the taking of DNA samples of survival of members of the family of the mine, including the father of Tim Donovan, officials were able to confirm the identity of the crew of seven of the Navy in January. But the father of Tim Donovan, brother of John William Donovan, died December 17, 2009.

"It has been a long and terrible event for all concerned, but it would be nice that finally becomes home once more," said Tim Donovan. "It is too bad that my father and my aunt were not around to see the miracle that led to his brother at home." "It would was granted by the two".

Goodbye with honours

Upon his arrival in the metropolitan Detroit area, John Donovan remains were transported to a funeral home in Fowlerville. A funeral mass will be said Friday in Ann Arbor. He will be buried next to his brothers in a cemetery in Ann Arbor. The assistance will be his only surviving brother, Josephine Demianenko Apopka, Florida

"It really is a miracle," Demianenko, 82, told the free press, recalling the day of the arrival a telegram informing him that his brother was missing in the action of the family of Michigan. "I never thought that I would see the day that would become my brother."

When family and friends gather for the funeral mass, said Demianenko, time will be sweet and sour: "we are happy that it is finally home, but certainly do not want to see his funeral."

The funeral mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the Church St. Patrick early in Ann Arbor, 5671 Whitmore Lake Road. Burial with military honors will follow in the old cemetery of San Patricio, in the street of the Church.