WWII Veteran laid to rest near San Mateo home after 77 years

SAN MATEO, Calif. - World War II Veteran Marine Private First Class Howard Miller was finally laid to rest in his hometown of San Mateo on Friday, 77 years after he was killed in battle.

"I just wish my brother and father were here to see it. They wanted so badly to bring him home," said Miller's 89-year-old sister, Charmaine Rush. She was just a young girl when her brother joined the Marines and eventually went overseas to fight the Japanese army.

Miller played football at San Mateo High School and got married while still in boot camp.

Miller was killed in 1943 during the brutal battle of Tarawa in the Pacific Theater. He was just 22-years-old.

"I remember the night. My father was in New York. My mother got the news and went screaming out of the house. And I followed her out," Rush said.

"I know for a fact my grandfather's heart was broken when this happened. I don't think there was any repair of that heart, ever," says Miller's nephew Barry Rush.

But for decades no one was sure exactly where he was buried.

Last year, a non-profit organization History Flight, found a previously undiscovered burial site.

Then earlier this year, the military's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced DNA tests had identified Miller's remains.

His casket arrived at SFO Wednesday. He is now buried near where he once lived.

For Miller's sister, finding her brother was a lifetime ordeal.

"I'm so happy to know he was coming home and in a place, he was familiar with. I didn't want him buried anywhere else," she says.