MONROE, Ga. - After three-quarters of a century, Deward Duncan is finally coming home.

U.S. Navy Reserve Seaman 2nd Class Deward W. Duncan Jr. died on Jan. 12, 1944, on tiny Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, in the Gilbert Islands as the Allied naval forces fought tooth and nail with the Japanese for every yard of sand in the Pacific Ocean.

He was serving with a landing craft in the Aviation, Construction, Ordnance, Repair service when a Japanese air raid dropped a bomb near his tent, killing him instantly.

Like many others in such attacks, he was buried the same day in a makeshift cemetery designed for such casualties, alongside many others who gave their lives in such attacks in the raging fires of World War II.

When the time came to collect the remains of such servicemen, however, Duncan’s were among the near half of known casualties that could not be found. In 1949, a military review board declared his remains were nonrecoverable.

Back in Monroe, where Duncan grew up, the family moved on. A burial plot was chosen next to the eventual resting place of his mother, and a headstone erected in Resthaven Cemetery noting his service, but the casket was empty, the gravesite a symbol without any actual presence of Duncan within.

But now, after 75 years, Duncan is on his way to the resting place that has always been his.

“It’s definitely a blessing to have him brought back home,” Darlene Phillips, Duncan’s niece, said. “It’s hard to put it into words how much it means.”

Phillips, who lives in Jackson, in Butts County, never met her uncle. None of the remaining family has. But they heard stories about the relative who never came home, of his service in World War II and his death on a small island halfway around the world.

So, when they were informed a burial site had been discovered on Betio Island and, among the remains of the many soldiers buried in Cemetery No. 33, Duncan’s remains had been found, there was celebration.

“We’re a patriotic family, a military family,” Phillips said. “He had three brothers who served in World War II. We’re just happy to bring him home.”

Duncan’s remains, identified thorugh dental records and anthropological analysis, are on their way to the states now. Once they arrive, the family will hold a public visitation from 5 to 8 p.m. June 7 at Tim Stewart Funeral Home in Monroe. Phillips said everyone is welcome to come and bid farewell to one of Monroe’s native sons, returned from war at last.

“There are only so many of us left in the family,” Phillips said. “We hope people will come out to remember him and his service.”

The public is also invited to attend the graveside funeral at 11 a.m. June 8 in Resthaven Cemetery, just outside downtown Monroe, where Duncan will at last be buried in the grave that has carried his name for so long.

There has not been much to remember Duncan by in recent years. A fire at his parents’ home, years earlier, burned most of their family albums, leaving only one picture of him, handed down carefully ever since, to carry his memory through the family.

But when they discovered Duncan’s remains, they also discovered remnants of a letter he had been writing to his mother.

“In this letter, he spoke of a dream he had, where he and some of the others in his unit were captured, but that they were OK,” Phillips said. “He went on to say, ‘I just can’t shake the feeling something will happen to me,’ but he urged his mother he was OK and told her not to worry. Sometime shortly after that he was killed.”

Duncan will rejoin his mother, buried in the gravesite reserved for him next to her seven and a half decades ago, at last next month.

And a family that never met him, but knows his name, and a community that he called home, will at last be able to bid him a proper farewell.

“None of us actually knew him,” Phillips said. “But it’s very special to bring him home.”