Thanksgiving is viewed traditionally as a time when family members, otherwise separated by distance or other man-made impediments, overcome those impediments and bridge the gaps between them. Even if for just a little while. It is a time for harkening back to how things once were (even if only in the mind’s eye of the teller) and looking forward to the future. It is a time for family. It is a time for homecomings.
Sgt. Larry S. Wassil, United States Army of Bloomfield, New Jersey is finally coming home to his family. Seventy-six years after he was reported missing and presumed killed in action while leading a three-man reconnaissance team scouting enemy positions near Bergstein, Germany, his remains have been positively identified. He and his men scattered as enemy forces swarmed around them. The two soldiers found one another. No one ever found Sgt. Wassil. He was declared missing on December 28, 1944 and presumed dead one December 29, 1945.
He was, in fact, dead. He ended up being buried without ever being identified in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium from where he was disinterred in 2019 when some DNA sleuths believed they had enough evidence to positively identify him. They were right.
Sgt. Wassil was only thirty-three years old at the time of his death. He shall forever be thirty-three. No longer constrained to spend eternity as unidentified remains in a cemetery half a world away, he shall be re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Safe journey home, Sgt. Wassil. You have certainly earned it.
-AK
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