I picked up a copy of the Boonville Herald, a local newspaper that still prints, with a front-page story headlined: ‘One year home’: Community to commemorate Harland J. Hennessey’s return.” It was Aug. 21, 2025 when Hennessey’s remains — identified by DNA more than eight decades after his death — had been returned to his hometown.

He was just an 18-year old farm kid when he was drafted in May 1941. At Boonville High School, he played soccer, participated in the track and field team, and appeared in school musicals and plays. He was called up in the peacetime draft: “Hello, dear, I’ll be back in a year. I’m in the Army now. They may ship me off to the Old Philippines. But sweetheart, you’ll still be the girl of my dreams,” the song went.’

Assigned to the 803rd Engineer Battalion, Aviation, he was, as the song forecast, stationed in the Philippines. Then came Pearl Harbor and the Japanese invasion of the islands, and he did not come back—until 2025.

Captured in Bataan after the American surrender on April 9, 1942, he was on what became known as the “Bataan death march” with thousands of prisoners of war marched to the Cabanatuan Prison Camp. It held 8,000 Americans and Filipinos. Conditions — with limited food and water — resulted in widespread malnutrition, malaria and dysentery. Pvt. Hennessey died thee on Nov. 1, 1942 from malnutrition.

In a “common” grave

He was buried in a common grave, but processing complications prevented identifying his remains right after the war. He was memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at Manilla American Cemetery in the Philippines. In 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Agency established that he was among the unidentified. DNA from his grandnephew helped to confirm the identification of his remains.

Pvt. Harland J. Hennessey was missing no more. Plans were made for his return, with military honors at Boonville Cemetery on Aug. 23, 2025. I had accidentally stumbled onto the one-year commemoration of that historic event. The post had been named for him long ago. This year’s event included displays inside the post building.

Robert Lott, a Navy veteran, is the post quartermaster who helped to organize the 2025 homecoming. Hennessy’s remains first arrived at the airport in Syracuse, then with a police escort were transported to Utica, where the staging area was the Tractor Supply parking lot, about 25 miles from Boonville. Lott arrived early, to find 100 motorcyclists already there. The number would grow to 250.

On the way, driving under an overpass, Lott saw people gathered with flags. On a second overpass, there were fire trucks and police and more people waving flags. He “started choking up,” he said. “When I got to Tractor Supply, there were already 100 motorcycles, and “The tears started flowing. It was just emotional for me.”

Now, the anniversary of his homecoming will be marked every year in Boonville.

“Our motto is ‘the post that never forgets,’” Lott said. “Even now when he’s back and we know that he is home, we are not going to forget.”