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A soldier killed in World War II, who had been classified as missing for over 80 years, was returned to his Massachusetts hometown over the weekend. The remains of U.S. Army Private Alfred Thomas Langevin, which were identified in July, arrived in Weymouth, a suburb south of Boston, on Saturday morning, Boston 25 News reported. Langevin, who worked as a grocery store manager before he enlisted in the Army when he was 29, went missing in 1944 while on patrol in a German forest fighting the Axis powers. He fought in some of the most intense combat operations of the war, according to his obituary. Langevin was declared dead a year after his deployment, though officials never learned what happened to him. “The exact circumstances of his loss remain uncertain, though it is believed he was killed in his defensive position amid heavy artillery bombardment,” his obituary noted. “In the years that followed, American efforts to locate his remains were hindered by treacherous terrain, landmines, and the chaos of war. His name was etched on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, as a tribute to his sacrifice,” the obituary continued. In June 2021, a renewed identification effort led by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the American Battle Monuments Commission discovered a set of remains from the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, known only as “X-2756,” his obituary said. Those remains ended up being positively identified as Langevin after his nephew provided DNA, and it was a familial match. He will be buried next to his sister, Irene, her husband, and their mother’s parents. Langevin had a wife, Helen F. Langevin, and they shared a daughter, Mary, who was a toddler at the time of his deployment. He is survived by his nephew Patrick and the extended Langevin family, according to his obituary. On Saturday, Lagevin was welcomed home with a dignified transport from Logan International Airport in Boston to Keohane Funeral Home. Calling hours will be held from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Weymouth Town Hall, where Langevin will lie in honor for the public to pay their respects. A funeral procession and burial with full military honors is scheduled for Monday. “Pvt. Langevin will be honored by his hometown with a series of tributes recognizing his bravery, sacrifice and long-awaited return,” the town of Weymouth wrote on its website. The procession will leave Keohane Funeral Home at 10 a.m., travel through Weymouth, including Jackson Square, where Lagevin was born and raised, and end at Fairmount Cemetery.
