Remains of WWII Veteran from Michigan return home nearly 80 years later

HOLLY, Mich. (FOX 2) – The remains of a WWII veteran from Flint were returned to Michigan and laid to rest after nearly 80 years.

While fighting against Germany, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Max Thurston was killed in action in November 1944, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). He was 19 years old. 

“Uncle Max and his fellow service men and women – they saved the world,” said Deb Callison, a relative of Thurston. “It mattered what they did and Uncle Max mattered to us, coming home.”

Due to intense combat against “heavily reinforced German forces,” Thurston’s body could not be retrieved from the battlefield at the time, according to the DPAA. The American Graves Registration Command worked on finding missing American personnel in Europe but despite multiple investigations between 1946 and 1950, they were unable to identify Thurston’s remains among the hundreds recovered.

In the summer of 2021, a historian with the DPAA realized a set of remains buried in Belgium might belong to Thurston. The remains were sent to a lab for confirmation and by July 7, 2023, nearly 80 years later, Thurston was fully accounted for. 

He was returned to his family and laid to rest on Oct, 12 in the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly. 

“We’re so happy to welcome him home,” Callison said.

Thurston’s late mother and sister were never able to lay their son to rest.

“I’m sure grandma took it to her grave, you know, that was some of her final thoughts, ” David Aitken, another family member, said. “I never dreamed this day would happen. I never even thought about it. The military says no one left behind – they mean it.”