With the sound of taps echoing across Fort Snelling National Cemetery Tuesday, U.S. Army Corporal William Colby is now back in Minnesota — home at last.

For Ginny Bouvette, his cousin, it was a moment that touched her heart.

“It’s so full, it’s overflowing,” she declared. “I have no words; I have no words. I’m just glad he’s here.”

On Dec. 2, 1950, the 19-year-old infantryman was reported missing in action and later presumed dead after his unit came under attack by Chinese forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.

But with no remains found, there were decades of uncertainty for Colby’s family.

“His mother, until the day she died in the 1970s, she believed he was alive someplace,” Bouvette says.

But in June 2018 — a turning point.

The North Korean government turned over 55 boxes containing remains of American service members killed during the Korean War.

“His remains, which consist of a single bone, came out of one of those 55 boxes,” explains Jennie Jin, supervisory forensic anthropologist with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, for short. “Slightly over 90 U.S. identifications have been made and Colby is one of those 90 individuals we have identified.”  

“The bones were very fragmentary, so we couldn’t really get any other information, and we had to rely heavily on DNA,” Bouvette adds.

DPAA researchers in Honolulu were able to match the remains’ DNA with that of family members who have loved ones still missing from the war — about 8,300 soldiers.

The agency says during the early 1990s, the U.S. Army meticulously collected what are called ‘family reference blood samples’ for comparison in the event remains would be found.

Jin says for her, the work of identifying fallen service members remains is personal.  

She notes while doing research, she discovered her grandfather was evacuated from the Chosin Reservoir area by the United States Navy.

“Everything started to come together, like ‘Wait a minute, so is the East Chosin, is that where my grandfather was a civilian and evacuated?’” Jin says. “If Colby had been alive, he would be my grandfather’s age because my grandfather was in his early twenties. It became very personal to me.”

She says there’s no way to know how Colby died.

But Jin notes his remains and the remains of the other service members were buried respectfully.

“If this is something that can provide like even a tiny bit of peace or closure, I’m very humbled and honored to do this,” she says.

Meanwhile, Bouvette says there was an emotional moment Tuesday when Colby’s casket was opened, and family members got to see his ribbons, including a Purple Heart.

Her daughter, Debbie Ramos, says she hopes other military families will benefit from the DNA technology.

“Hopefully, the other people that were sent home with Billy, that their families can get closure, like we did,” Ramos says. “After 74 years, this is Billy’s home. He’s really home.”