CANTON, Ga. — Nearly 80 years after his death, a World War II soldier from Atlanta is back home and was laid to rest.
Private First Class Hood E. Cole was killed in action during the Battle of the Bulge. His remains weren’t identified until last February. On Friday, his remains returned to Georgia.
At the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton on Monday, bagpipes played as his flag-draped coffin arrived behind a military jeep.
Dozens of Patriot Guard motorcyclists greeted him with American flags and salutes.
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PFC Cole grew up in Atlanta, the youngest of four children. His family waited nearly eight decades for this homecoming.
“I’m very sorry that my mother couldn’t be here to welcome him home,” Betty Midkiff, Cole’s niece, told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims. “She never got over losing him.”
At 18 years old, Cole enlisted in the Army on January 15, 1944.
By the end of the year, he was in France fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, assigned to L Company, 3rd Battalion, 276th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division.
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On January 14, 1945, nearly a year to the day of his enlistment, he fell behind German lines and was gravely wounded.
“He was drug back to the lines by another U.S. soldier and died of his injuries that evening,” Sgt. Rusty Midkiff, the soldier’s great nephew told Channel 2 Action News.
Because of battle circumstances, his comrades were not able to immediately recover his body. In January 1951, the Department of Defense declared his remains unrecoverable.
But in 2018, remains of soldiers missing in combat were disinterred from an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Belgium and flown to the U.S. for analysis.
Last February, with the help of a mitochondrial DNA analysis, Cole’s remains were identified.
At the gravesite service Monday, Taps played as Cole’s family gathered for a ceremony. Debbie Johnson came to honor the uncle she never got to meet.
“I’m just glad he’s home. My father grieved for him all those years, wanting to find him,” Johnson said.
“So he gave it all, he gave it all for his country,” Betty Midkiff said. “And this brings wonderful closure, wonderful closure.”
Military records show there are still three soldiers in Cole’s unit that have not been accounted for.
“I’m so honored to see that people still cared so much,” Betty Midkiff said.
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