Body of Air Force private who died in WWII identified, returned to Riverside with a hero’s welcome [Video]

MENIFEE, Calif. (KABC) — It was a solemn homecoming 82 years in the making as an American Airlines plane touched down at the Ontario International Airport Tuesday afternoon.

On board was a flag-draped coffin containing the remains of U.S. Army Air Force Private 1st Class Charles Powers of Riverside. His nephew and namesake stood on the tarmac with his family waiting to receive the uncle he never knew, but whose DNA connects them.

“Last May, they called us and said that yeah we think that we have a hit on him. So they did all the forensics…. it ends up they really only found three bones,” said Charlie Powers.

In December 1941 Powers was a member of the 28th Materiel Squadron 20th Air Base Group when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula in April 1942. Powers was …