82 years later, body of WWII private returned to Riverside with a hero's procession

MENIFEE, Calif. (KABC) -- It was a solemn homecoming 82 years in the making as an American Airlines plane touched down at the Ontario International Airport Tuesday afternoon.

On board was a flag-draped coffin containing the remains of U.S. Army Air Force Private 1st Class Charles Powers of Riverside. His nephew and namesake stood on the tarmac with his family waiting to receive the uncle he never knew, but whose DNA connects them.

"Last May, they called us and said that yeah we think that we have a hit on him. So they did all the forensics.... it ends up they really only found three bones," said Charlie Powers.

In December 1941 Powers was a member of the 28th Materiel Squadron 20th Air Base Group when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula in April 1942. Powers was reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered.

They were forced to march 65 miles - known as the Bataan Death March - and held as prisoners of war at two camps. More than 2,500 POWs died at the camps, including Powers whose death was recorded as July 18, 1942.

"They lost a lot of guys I guess on just the march. It was a 6-to-9 day march of 65 miles. So he was only in the camp for three months," said Powers.

His uncle was 26 years old when he died at the Cabanatuan Camp and his body was buried in a common grave with others.

"He died in 1942 but he was missing in action until the end of the war," said Powers.

He said his father never spoke about his younger brother, but did discover telegrams notifying the family of his uncle's status as MIA in 1942. In another telegram dated in 1946 his uncle was declared dead.

Powers was interned as an unknown soldier until the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency was able to identify his remains through a DNA match provided by the Powers family.

"Their families knew their loved ones were gone. They knew they were interned but they couldn't bring them home to be buried in their hometown until they were able to identify whose bones were whose," said Laura Herzog with Honoring the Fallen. "Thanks to the advancement in DNA technology they are finally able to do that."

Herzog's organization has help repatriate over 100 fallen soldiers identified by the DPAA.

With each one brought home members of the community are invited to line the procession route and honor the heroes' return to their communities and to their families.

"I'm proud of the fact that I am just associated with him," said an emotional Powers about his uncle.

Powers will be laid to rest on Thursday at the Riverside National Cemetery - 82 years to the day he died.