Overview
- Behlert was buried with full military honors at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno on Wednesday after his remains arrived in mid-May.
- The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency confirmed the identification after combining DNA analysis with dental and anthropological comparisons.
- A nephew’s DNA sample submitted in 2001 produced the match last December, enabling officials to close the case after more than 80 years.
- Behlert’s remains had been recovered after the Saipan invasion in 1944, interred as unknown at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines, and were disinterred for modern forensic testing.
- The identification updates memorial records with a rosette to mark him accounted for and underscores the DPAA’s ongoing work to use family DNA and forensics to resolve long-standing WWII losses.