Newly-identified remains of World War II soldier finally coming home

FAIRHAVEN — For most of her life, Pauline Parker didn’t know she had a great-uncle, let alone one who served in World War II.

Someone from the U.S. Army reached out to her in 2018 to request a DNA sample as part of an effort to identify the remains of soldiers who had died overseas during the war. 

Eight years later, she and her husband Barry Parker were notified the Army had identified the remains of William Gervais Jr., her grandmother’s brother. 

Gervais enlisted in the U.S. Army on Oct. 6, 1940 and was stationed in Germany as part of the 2nd Ranger Battalion. After his unit captured a hill in the Hurtgen Forest near Bergstein, Germany, he and another ranger were sent as messengers to report the unit’s position to company headquarters. 

He was last seen being led into a German pillbox, a type of concrete defense structure. He was possibly taken as a prisoner of war, although he was never listed in German records. 

His remains were not recovered during initial post-war searches, but were later found in April 1946 and interred at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupre, Belgium. In August 2022, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains for laboratory analysis. 

Gervais’s remains were finally identified this June.

Now the couple are inundated with planning a funeral for the soldier and bringing his remains home. 

Pauline Parker said one person they spoke with suggested Gervais should be buried in Germany, where he served and died, but she wants his final resting place to be in Massachusetts. 

“We are his family,” she said. “He should come home to us and not be buried where nobody will see him or know of him.”

While the couple considered burying Gervais in Mattapoisett, where Pauline Parker's grandmother lived and raised her mother, they decided on the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne. They chose the cemetery because they regularly visit other family members buried there, and the Army would cover the cost of purchasing a plot.

There will be a funeral at the Saunders-Dwyer Funeral Home in New Bedford later this year to memorialize him, and the Parkers said they want to “make the most of it” with a big ceremony this December. There will be a procession from the airport where the Parkers will be reunited with Gervais's remains to the funeral home. There will then be a funeral and burial ceremony for Gervais .  

“It's a somber thing, but other than that, all the pomp and circumstance is truly amazing,” Pauline Parker said. 

She said she’s enjoyed learning more about her long-lost family member and is proud of his service. 

“We’re trying to make him come back to life and let people know what he did for his country back then,” Barry Parker said. 

The specific date and time of the procession, funeral and burial will be posted in late November on the funeral home’s website.