Fallen soldier welcomed home

By RALPH ANSAMI

[email protected]

Ironwood - Ironwood area residents gathered Friday evening to pay tribute to a war hero they never knew.

The Patriot Guard caravan escorted the remains of Pearl Harbor victim Navy Fireman Second Class Lowell Valley to Ontonagon, where he will be buried today.

Around 50 people, many of them veterans, had gathered at the Michigan Tourism Information Center on U.S. 2 in Ironwood by 9 p.m., as darkness was setting in.

Former Iron County Veterans Service Officer Bob Morzenti, of Montreal, Wis., and Tom DeCarlo, a veteran from Ironwood, were searching for a rope so they could hang a flag at the overpass.

Others carried flags that they were prepared to wave at the passing Patriot Guard, which transferred from Wisconsin to Michigan members at Ashland.

The escort crew had originally planned to leave Superior, Wis., at 7 p.m. with the remains of Valley, but was about an hour behind schedule.

Ashland, too, was planning to honor Valley, who was 19 when he died at Pearl Harbor.

Through the relentless efforts of his brother, Bob, Earl Valley's remains were recovered, identified by DNA.

Funeral services for Valley, who would have been 96, begin at 11 a.m. (EDT) in Ontonagon, where a huge turn-out is expected. Burial will follow there.

Valley was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen.

Of 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,906 service members (26,000 are assessed as possibly recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II.