WWII Veteran's Remains Returned To Metuchen For Burial After 80 Years

METUCHEN, NJ – This Memorial Day was special for the Borough. The remains of Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Uhrin returned to Metuchen and the veteran was finally laid to rest on Monday, in a ceremony attended by hundreds.

Uhrin was 21 and serving as a radio operator on a B-17F Flying Fortress bomber when it was shot down on Oct. 14, 1943, according to the Department of Defense. His body was positively identified last year, after 79 years.

The veteran’s remains arrived at Newark Airport on May 26, and he was given plane-side honors before being escorted to the Costello-Runyon Funeral Home in Metuchen.

Over 250 motorcyclists including many from American Legion Post 65 Riders, accompanied the remains of Uhrin from Newark Airport, according to Mayor Jonathan M Busch. The New Jersey State Police shut down the NJ Turnpike and police and fire departments on Uhrin's path home saluted his journey.

Immediately after the annual Memorial Day parade on Monday, the community has an opportunity to pay their respects to Uhrin at Memorial Park during a ceremony held there.

During the ceremony, Busch said the day carries with it the weight and gravity of memorializing the fallen, and the light and hope of reunion and community.

“We gather today in a way unimaginable just a year ago. We are reunited with one another and finally, Staff Sgt. Michael Uhrin, a 21 year-old fallen service member, has finally returned home to be reunited with his family, his Metuchen,” Busch said.

“It is a tremendous honor to have him back home today. Staff Sgt Uhrin, we salute you for your service, your bravery, and your sacrifice. Your community is uplifted with your homecoming, for the meaning it carries on behalf of your loved ones, and the significance it bears on this nation for which you gave your precious life. The future of Metuchen, this place we all call home, is brighter today because you have returned.”

He was then laid to rest alongside family members at Hillside Cemetery.

Uhrin graduated from Metuchen High School and Middlesex County Vocational School before working for the Celotex Corporation, according to the historical articles.

He was assigned to 369th Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bombardment Group, 40th Combat Wing, 8th Air Force in the European Theater. His plane had departed Thurleigh, England and was one of 60 lost on the mission to Schweinfurt, Germany.

Seven of 10 crewmen on Uhrin's bomber bailed were taken prisoner; he and two others were killed. Surviving crew members said he died before the bomber crashed near Rommelhausen and Langenbergheim in Hessen, Germany. No one witnessed him bail out, the DOD said.

Newspaper clippings posted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency show Uhrin registered for the service in 1942 and had left for the European Theater in September 1943, just a month before he died.

Although his death was confirmed, there was no record of his burial location. But the DOD kept searching for Uhrin's remains.

Historians from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) located a set of remains "determined to be a strong candidate for association with Uhrin."

His remains — which were buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery in Belgium — were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis to identify Uhrin’s remains, as well as circumstantial evidence, while scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System performed DNA testing. His nephew, Michael Joseph Uchrin said he and his son provided the DNA samples.

Uhrin was accounted for in May last year, but his family was told only later in 2022.

Uhrin’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the United Kingdom, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, officials said.

(With reporting from Michelle-Rotuno Johnson)

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