After , Barbara Dyer , of , Chisago City, Minn., died at age 86 in 2019, her household buried her at the , Fairview Cemetery , in , Lindstrom.
Four years later, her relatives gathered again as Dyer’s brother,  , U. S.  , Marine Corps , Sgt.  , Arthur Ervin Jr., was laid to rest at the , National Memorial Cemetery , of the Pacific in , Honolulu, Hawaii , — even though he died 75 times before his girlfriend at age 22 during World War II on , July 5, 1944.
Dyer’s home wished she could had lived long enough to experience this patriotic sense of closure. It was a long-awaited services that included full military honors.
Otherwise, Dyer had spent her life wondering if her brother’s bones would ever be found, identified and returned. She died with those issues still unresolved.
” It broke my heart that …” said Dyer’s daughter,  , Nita Kay Gay , ( who also goes by , Nita Kay ), pausing for composure.
” … It was emotional … the issue was always lingering in her mind… but, the job was done in both Barbara and Arthur’s honor”.
Never forgotten
Ervin was one of the hundreds of defense personnel who had been missing from World War II up until his body was finally located. Currently, the lost or unidentified totals more than 74, 000, according to the the , Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency , ( DPAA ).
To set that amount in view, it’s almost equal to the populace of , Lakeville.
It’s a level of damage substantially larger than those missing from various problems, including more than 5, 000 from the Korean War and more than 1, 500 from the Vietnam War.
While some of the lost are possible not to return home, such as those who died at sea, several whose remains have been discovered recently, mainly thanks to technological advancements.
In Ervin’s event, the perseverance of family members and volunteer researchers played a vital role in moving the investigation forward to finally return this Marine.
Ervin became one of the 166 company members identified for the fiscal year 2022 as a result of all these combined work. In 2023, 158 were accounted for, during this fiscal year, which ends in September, 109 more people have had their lost situations resolved, according to the DPAA, which is tasked with finance for the lost.
” There are so many missing from wars and conflicts, our task is sadly never going to get done”, said , Sean Everette, a spokeswoman for the DPAA. But we’ll never give up trying to locate them and return them to their communities.
A author’s individual link
It was Ervin’s case that led , Geoffrey Roecker , of , Glen Falls, N. Y., to found , Missing Marines, an award-winning and incredibly detailed initiative and website ( missingmarines.com ) dedicated to preserving the stories of missing service members.
” I’ve been at it since 2011″, Roecker said.
Additionally, his action provides study for families seeking information about their martial ancestors as well as for numerous MIA recovery organizations.
This includes the home of Ervin, who shared a relationship with one of Roecker’s ancestors: Ervin’s battalion chief, 1st Lt.  , Philip Emerson Wood Jr., is Roecker’s primary cousin, half removed.
” Geoff deserves a lot of credit”, said Kay. Without his assistance, this would never have been possible.
” She downplays her position, but she did a ton of work”, Roecker replied of Kay.
Kay’s brother and Roecker’s niece were friends as well as colleagues, friends and comrades who died up.
In July of 1944, Ervin and Wood were people of , Company A,  , 1st Battalion,  , 24th Marine Regiment,  , 4th Marine Division, which the DPAA describes as part of the war power of the area of Saipan in a larger effort to capture the Mariana Islands from , Japan.
From his studies, Roecker learned that the , Marines , were trying to rescue displaced residents on , July 5, 1944. But finally, Lt. Wood was hit by a rifle.
As Wood, fatally wounded, cried out, Ervin rushed forth to support him — and, while doing so, was fatally shot by enemy fire.
” He was probably dying before he hit the ground”, Roecker wrote on , Missing Marines.
But what happened to Ervin’s system?
That’s been the topic that Roecker spent 11 times trying to answer.
X-64
“Sgt. Ervin’s event is a particularly strange one”, Roecker said lately.
He mused about the secret in a site post on , Memorial Day , 2018.
” Arthur Ervin was buried without any means of identification”, he wrote. ” Through a clerical error or plain ineptitude, he was listed as ‘ missing,’ his keeps declared’ unfamiliar,’ and buried under an private rock in Manila”.
Roecker credits a fellow scholar,  , Ted Darcy, who helped him find the page in 2011. Given everything that was known about the battle, the victims, and the buried, it appeared to be a fairly easy case to solve.
” He said,’ I think we may address this one right absent,'” Roecker recalled.
No pretty.
But, Roecker says, after an inspection including medical records, diagrams, data and Genome, it was believed that an unnamed service member known as X-64 was Ervin.
DNA
He was n’t X-64 to Dyer, to her, he was” Big Brother”.
Essentially, they were half-siblings: Their family, a lady, was raising her three children— including Arthur — on her own before remarrying and having two more children, including , Barbara Dyer.
Dyer was just 7 years old when” Big Brother” enlisted in the military from their then-home state of , Texas  , in , June 1940, according to , Missing Marines, by October, he had joined the Marine detachment of the , Naval Air Station,  , Pearl Harbor.
When her family learned that her nephew had been killed in action, Dyer was 11 years old. She did n’t talk about the loss much, but in her later years, she renewed the search to bring Big Brother home.
” She was not so good with the internet, but she found out how to call people and they did give her a DNA kit”, Kay recalled.
Later, the family learned that a DNA sample from a male family was needed, it took time to reach out — and encourage — a man cousin in , California , to get involved, Kay says.
During their search for a finish, the family learned more about Ervin’s existence as well as his death.
” When I began helping my mother, a friend had found out about the , Missing Marines , site”, Kay said. ” From it, I learned more about my mother’s home than she had previously told me”.
In fact, Ervin’s living story on the site — helped along with discussions, military information, family photographs, newspaper clippings and more — is as detailed as a book, stretching up to explain the history of Ervin’s parents as well as his personal narrative.
The account begins:
” Arthur , B. Ervin, Junior was six months old when his father died in the mine…”
The energy was Kay’s inspiration.
” It was just amazing, all the information he had”, she said. ” It motivated me to walk ahead”.
Through , Missing Marines, the family learned how their Aquatic survived the Japanese invasion on , Pearl Harbor , on , Dec. 7, 1941 , — and how he matured during this time and was given a second chance after allegedly running short of the law.
” The day , Pearl Harbor , was attacked”, Kay wrote in an email to the , Pioneer Press,” Arthur was in the ( brig ) and in the process of being dishonorably discharged. After volunteering to dig up bombs that had been dropped but did n’t yet explode, he had a follow-up court date. To his amazement, he was offered to join the , Marines , suddenly based on his charity and work ethics.
He then received two Purple Hearts and the Navy Silver Cross. Perhaps a Good Habit ribbon.”
During this long process of searching and researching, though, Kay’s mom died. Shortly after, COVID-19 hit.
” The state pretty little shut down,” Kay said.
Finally
The home had been anticipating a phone call since 1944, which had been delayed for 78 ages, finally arrived in 2022.
” They called and said,’ We have a fit,'” Kay recalled of the mobile phone from the defense”. They said,’ We’ve identified him.’ “
Her emotion?
” I cried,” she said.
Roecker was one of the first persons she called out. He was even invited by the home to the death in , Hawaii, which was held in , October 2023.
Afterward, he wrote about it in a , poem-like post , on the , Missing Marines , page on Facebook:
Twenty-one photos rang out. Falcons thundered behind. Taps sounded.
( You ca n’t not tear up if the bugler knows what they’re doing,
and by heaven this one did. )
For about five days,
I told what I knew about Arthur.
It was n’t everything. It will never be all. But —
It was an end.
Of a existence history, and a career search.
Arthur’s where he needs to be —
shouting range, at least, from three who died with him,
Wood, Knight, and Hester.
And we who live,
who had no idea the day would arrive,
enjoyed a day in the sunshine in Hawaii
with him.
A storage on a mantle
On Friday— the 80th anniversary of Ervin’s death — his 13-year-old great-niece, Lilly, reflected on her mother’s journey from Saipan to , Chisago City  , to , Honolulu:
” I felt honored to be part of Arthur’s death,” she said in a word information”. It was an incredible experience.
” I was also so relieved to discover Mom succeed in this. She spent decades attempting to find Arthur for Grandma, and she frequently sobbed when she hit the obstacles.
To see someone buried as a hero and receive the honors he did was amazing, I did n’t realize how significant this was until the actual funeral.
Now some of those honours are framed in a dark package, including a folded , U. S.  , symbol and Ervin’s military awards. The field is visible on the stove in the lakeside home in Chisago City, where Kay lives with her husband and two of their babies.
It feels appropriate to keep Ervin’s treasures in a prominent location because this house was also the home of Dyer and her late father, who moved around after they retired.
” She used to state,’ I wonder if we’ll always get out, I also wonder what happened to my sibling,'” Kay said”. I’m glad we have closure, but I certainly wish it had happened before she passed.
” But I know they were reunited in Heaven”.
___
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