Posted on 07/15/2011 6:20:26 PM PDT by csvset
SAN BRUNO -- Edward L. O'Toole, an infantry soldier from San Francisco, is returning at last from World War II. He was to be buried at 10 a.m. Friday at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, more than 66 years after he was killed in combat while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany.
There will be full military honors: an honor guard, a rifle salute, a bugler playing taps.
It is a rare occasion when a soldier is brought to his last resting place so long after his death. "He is the first to be returned from World War II in recent memory," said Cathy McCall, the manager of the Golden Gate National Cemetery.
Edward O'Toole was 23 when he died in a battle between American troops and a German armored division near Sueggerath, Germany, in late 1944.
He was reported missing and presumed dead, but his remains were not discovered until 2009, when a German civilian digging in a forest found an unmarked grave.
There were two bodies, and one was Edward O'Toole, who was buried where he fell on or about Nov. 20, 1944.
He was identified last year through dog tags and dental records by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a government unit concerned with service members thought to be prisoners or missing in action.
It is government policy to repatriate remains to the person's home area.
No surviving family No members of his family will be on hand to mourn Edward O'Toole.
He has no known close, surviving relatives. Thomas O'Toole of Grass Valley (Nevada County) thinks he might be a distant cousin and may attend the ceremony.
One mourner who will be there Friday is Bernadette Hooper, a San Francisco paralegal, who was not even born when O'Toole died.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
There will be full military honors: an honor guard, a rifle salute, a bugler playing taps.
Now, those will be wearing pink camo, bubble-blowing guns for the salute and the bugler playing taps while nude.
OK... how long before that comes true? /sarc
So sad, but there are so many more out there.
May God Bless his spirit. Thank you for your selfless sacrifice for all freedom loving people on the alter of
Freedom.
Welcome Home and may you rest in peace on the soil you made hallow.
A salute to your memory and your sacrifice from a fellow veteran
A member of the Greatest Generation comes home. RIP, and thank you for your service and ultimate sacrifice.
God bless Bernadette Hooper for caring for and honoring our troops.
I’m not so sure he would want to be interred there now, considering what the place has become.
God bless Bernadette Hooper for caring for and honoring our troops.
Yes!
Had to look it up. Almost due north of Aachen, perhaps 15 miles
Looks like it’s about a month late for that. He must have been near the northern flank of the 1st army. The area still looks to be largely rural.
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