Army Staff Sgt. Louis S. Doddo was killed in action during WW II attack on the island of Saipan.
After seven decades and several stops along the way, the remains of World War II veteran Army Staff Sgt. Louis Salvatore Doddo are finally going home, officials said.
He was 30 when he died in 1944 during a massive Japanese attack on the island of Saipan in the Western Pacific. Doddo was single and hailed from Norwalk, Connecticut. He entered service in 1941, at the height of global fighting.
His body was not recovered after the July battle, along with many of his fellow soldiers in the 105th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division. And as the years wore on, his remains made a series of stops, though none would prove to be his final resting place.
In 1950, the American Graves Registration Service combed the Pacific theater looking for fallen service members, and unearthed remains they tried to identify. A body identified as Unknown X-26 was found in the 27th Infantry Division Cemetery on Saipan. But the workers were not able to identify them, and they were subsequently reburied at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
Fast-forward to 2018, when historians from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency tracked data linking Doddo remains in the Philippines grave yard. Unknown X-26 was disinterred and sent to a laboratory in Pearl Harbor.
Genetic and dental testing determined Unknown X-26 was indeed Doddo. The City of Norwalk has been notified that Doddo, who was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, will at long last be coming home in May 2021.
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