For years, Second Lieutenant Gene Walker’s family had limited information about him. They relied on old photos and newspaper clippings.
“We knew he was a handsome guy,” said Lindsay Collingwood, Walker’s granddaughter. “People say I look like him, but we did not have a whole lot of information about who he was as a person.”
Walker was the commander of a tank that was struck by heavy-duty artillery in Germany during World War ll.
According to the U.S. Army, the attack killed Walker instantly, but heavy fighting in the area prevented surviving crews from retrieving his body. Later, his remains were hard to identify.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Back at his home in Indiana, his daughter was only 3 months old and grew up with little knowledge of her father. She later moved to San Diego’s North County, and last July got an unexpected phone call.
“I think it was a phone call she never expected, and I don't know that the shock has quite settled yet from that, even after this many months,” Collingwood said.
Walker’s remains were identified. Providing his family, including his granddaughter and two great grandkids, a sense of closure they never thought they’d get.
Local
“We're excited,” Collingwood said. “I think there's a lot of different emotions because this was not something that we ever expected to happen.”
The Collingwood family had previously provided DNA samples to the military five years prior but had begun to lose confidence in a positive result. Then the ID came, and, along with it, new information about their loved one.
“We've learned a whole lot about his life and his experience and his last days through our interactions with the Army," Collingwood said. “We're very grateful that they've put all of this work into researching and communicating to us.”
He was laid to rest with full military honors in a touching ceremony on Friday.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, as of May 2022, there were more than 72,000 Americans still missing from World War ll.
