Pearl Harbor Hero’s Remains Come Home After Nearly 80 Years

AKELEY, MN — Closure was a long time coming for Orville Staffenhagen and his family. But the 88-year-old Minnesota man now finally knows for sure his brother, Neal Todd, was among the more than 2,400 Americans killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Uniformed military members, firefighters and Todd’s relatives were among the sea of people awaiting Todd’s remains as it arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last week, KARE and others have reported. It wasn’t until earlier this year that it was confirmed that Todd, a Navy fireman first class, died while aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack.

"I never thought it would happen," Staffenhagen said after the plane landed, according to KARE. "We are happy to have him home.”

DNA testing confirmed the Minnesota man's remains, KARE and The Star-Tribune both reported.

Todd was born in Bemidji, Minnesota, graduated from high school in 1938 and enlisted in the Navy in 1940, according to The Star-Tribune. His family still lives in Akeley, Minnesota, where the Navy conducted a burial with an honor guard and bugler over the weekend at a local cemetery.

Even having presumed Todd was among the Pearl Harbor dead, the confirmation that came earlier this year was a tough pill to swallow for Staffenhagen. Staffenhagen’s wife, Delores, told The Star-Tribune her husband “broke down really, really hard” when he received a phone call earlier this year informing him of the confirmation.

Todd was one of eight siblings in a blended family, all of whom served in the military in some form, according to KARE.

Staffenhagen is the only one of them still living.

"He was one of a kind,” Staffenhagen said of his brother, according to KARE. “He was the friendliest man in the world, and the easiest to get along with."