Copyright The Boston Globe
A soldier from Weymouth who was declared missing during a battle in World War II is coming home this weekend. The remains of Pvt. Alfred T. Langevin, who grew up in Weymouth before being deployed to the European theater in 1944, will arrive at Logan Airport Saturday and a funeral will be held Monday, according to a press release issued by the Keohane Funeral Home. Pvt. Langevin, who was killed in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest when he was 29, was identified following advanced DNA testing on previously unidentifiable remains interred in an American military cemetery in Belgium, according to a release from the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA. Pvt. Langevin will be buried with full military honors in Fairmount Cemetery Monday with a graveside service at 11 a.m. after a funeral procession and a public calling hour, the funeral home said. Public calling hours will be held on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. in the Weymouth Town Hall. The procession will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, departing from McDonald Keohane Funeral Home at 809 Main St. and traveling to Fairmount Cemetery, according to the funeral home. Advertisement “We invite residents, veterans, families, schoolchildren, and community members to line the procession route, to wave American flags, and join us in giving Pvt. Alfred T. Langevin the hero’s welcome and farewell he has always deserved,” the funeral home wrote in the release. Pvt. Langevin was reported missing on Nov. 6, 1944 during intense combat in the Hürtgen Forest, one of the bloodiest battles of the war, in which nearly 34,000 Americans were killed, injured, or captured, the DPAA said According to his obituary, published by the Keohane Funeral Home, Pvt. Langevin likely “was killed in his defensive position amid heavy artillery bombardment.” Following the war, in May 1946, an American Graves Registration Command recovered several sets of remains in a forested area around the battlefield, including one set, later designated as “X-2756,” according to the DPAA. Advertisement In May 1949, that set of remains was “declared unidentifiable” and interred at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, the DPAA said. Pvt. Langevin’s name was etched into the Walls of the Missing at an American cemetery in Holland, according to the funeral home. But in June 2021, the remains were exhumed and transported to a lab for advanced DNA analysis, before they were identified as belonging to Pvt. Langevin in July 2025, the DPAA said. His remains will arrive at Logan Airport Saturday morning before being taken to Weymouth at 7 a.m., according to the funeral home. Pvt. Langevin was born on March 3, 1915 in Jackson Square, Weymouth. He attended Weymouth public schools until the “hardships of the Great Depression led him to support his family,” the funeral home said. “Please consider displaying the American flag at your home or business to show your respect and gratitude for Pvt. Langevin’s ultimate sacrifice,” the funeral home said. Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com.
