28-02-2025
'He's coming home' family of missing WW II soldier reacts after remains are ID'd
MUHLENBERG COUNTY, Ky. (WEHT) — A family of a soldier from Central City reportedly killed during World War II is preparing his final resting place.
Officials said U.S. Army Pfc. Kenneth D. Burgess was accounted for on September 13, 2024. He went missing in action in September 1943 during World War II. Linda Burgess, his great-niece says she made it her mission to figure out what happened.
'It was like a book was closed and it opened up again. It was like an epilogue had been added to this book,' she says.
Burgess was assigned to Company B, 4th Ranger Battalion 'Darby's Rangers' in the Mediterranean Theater in 1943. Burgess was reportedly killed in action in the vicinity of the Sala, Italy, during Operation AVALANCHE.
Officials say his body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war, so the War Department declared him non-recoverable on May 10, 1948.
'Many of them never came home. My mother always says my great-grandmother knew but she would not accept and she said I am his mother and I would have known that he was dead. So he was kind of like a legend,' Burgess says.
Burgess says stories of her great uncle have been passed down from generation to generation.
'My dad used to say that he had a character. But for the most part, he was a fun-loving guy,' Burgess says.
The Department of Defense says DNA was taken from family members and helped identify Kenneth Burgess' remains.
'I am so glad they have forensics up now, that they can identify more of our veterans and they are bringing more home,' says Jessie Hettinger of the Owensboro-Daviess County Veterans Association.
Hettinger's uncle, Private Robert Wright was reported Missing in Action at just 17 years old during the Koren War in 1950. She says he was able to come home, thanks to DNA testing.
'They had flags up along the route for the funeral for my uncle,' she says.
'Just thinking about that possibility gives me chills. And it is very emotional for me, and a sense of pride and patriotism. It is hard to describe it,' Burgess says.
Burgess will be buried in Central City, Kentucky in May 2025.
'It's not over. He has been found and he is coming home to Central City,' Burgess says.
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