Ohio soldier killed in WWII returns home for burial

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HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — A soldier killed in combat in World War II has been buried with military honors in his home state of Ohio more than 70 years after his death.

Marine Corps Reserve Pfc. William Brandenburg, of New Miami, was buried Saturday next to his parents in a cemetery in southwest Ohio’s Butler County.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says the 17-year-old soldier died in November 1943 in a battle against the Japanese on the island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean. He was later buried with other unknown service members at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

Brandenburg’s sister, who has since died, submitted DNA to the Pentagon in 2011. It enabled his identification last year.

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