Missing World War II soldier from Pennsylvania gets proper burial next to parents more than 80 years later

A man from Indiana County killed during World War II was finally laid to rest, more than 80 years after he was declared missing and presumed dead.

Sally Gaydosh is John Walko's youngest sibling. She still remembers the day he came home to tell his family he was going to war.

"I ran up to the garden to tell my mother, 'John's home,'" Gaydosh recalled. "She said, 'What's he doing home?' I said, 'I don't know, but he's in the kitchen and I think he's crying.' And so she immediately runs down, 'What's wrong, John, what's wrong?' He said, 'Mom, I've been drafted.'"

Walko, whom Gaydosh described as a deep-thinking kid who felt the need to serve his community, had a premonition.

"'I'm afraid I won't come home,' is what he said at the time. 'I'm afraid.' I can still see her picking up that apron and wiping his face," Gaydosh said. 

An Army infantryman, Walko served in Europe during the savage Battle of Aachen. In the blinding flash of a Nazi motor round, he was gone. Gaydosh also remembers the day the telegram was delivered, that Walko was missing in action and presumed dead. 

"I listened for a little bit, and then I heard my mother crying so hard," she said. 

Walko's family, like most in that situation, prayed the Army made a mistake and that he'd be found.

A U.S. Army DNA team eventually identified Walko's remains after they were discovered in Germany. Eight decades after he said goodbye, he was welcomed home by people, most not even born when he died. It's fitting, according to his sister. 

"I know he would just be so honored," she said. 

Walko now rests beside his mother and father, as well as other family members, back home again in Indiana County. 

"I don't know what he would have done, but I know he wouldn't have just been the average person," Gaydosh said.