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When PFC George Traver of the U.S. Marine Corps was killed in action in World War II on Nov. 20, 1943, all his parents received back home in Chatham was a telegram informing them of their son's death.

For more than seven decades, Private Traver's family has been working to get his remains returned home. His mother, Nellie, passed away in 1975; his father, Charles, died in 1963. Private Traver's two brothers and two sisters have passed away, too.

There are now 11 living nieces and nephews of PFC Traver, including David Silliman of Chatham.

Mr. Silliman knew how impor­tant it was to his grandmother and his mother that their son and brother be laid to rest in his hometown, so he spent years trying to bring that about.

When his uncle's remains were finally found and identified, Mr. Silliman suspected the homecoming would be meaningful to more than his family.

"I had a feeling it wasn't going to be so quiet," he said of the ceremony.

All of Chatham
He was right. The Aug. 26 funeral for PFC Traver engulfed the small Chatham community. At the middle of it all was Mike Blasl, a funeral director at French, Gifford, Preiter and Blasl Funeral Home, as well as a parishioner at St. James Church in Chatham.

"I thought it was great that the country would work so hard to bring these people home," Mr. Blasl told The Evangelist. PFC Traver had enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 1942. He was 24 years old and had been working as a fireman for the New York Central railroad system.

Assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, the young private served in the South Pacific and was wounded in Guadalcanal, receiving a Purple Heart, before finally being felled in the Gilbert Islands. He was one of nearly 1,000 Marines to lose their lives in the battle for Tarawa Atoll.

PFC Traver's body was found in an unmarked military grave on Betito, in the Gilbert Islands of Tarawa Atoll. A team from History Flight, a non-profit charity that works to find missing servicemen, helped to identify his remains through dental records and a Boy Scout pocketknife found along with him.

Both Mr. Blasl and Rev. George Fleming, pastor at St. James (and at St. John the Baptist parish in Valatie and St. Joseph's in Stuyvesant Falls/Stottville), were impressed by the incredible community involvement when Private Traver was finally brought home.

Ecumenical touch
First, there was a procession from the airport to Chatham the day before the funeral.

"It was remarkable," Mr. Blasl told The Evangelist, noting that dozens of people came out to help clean up Chatham Rural Cemetery in preparation.

PFC Traver was Lutheran, while his family was Methodist, but the funeral was held at St. James Church. Father Fleming said it was truly an ecumenical affair -- not uncommon for St. James, which hosts an ecumenical Thanksgiving celebration every year.

The ceremony was just another reminder of the interfaith bridges that have been formed, Mr. Blasl told The Evangelist.

He also said that, although all funerals hold emotional weight and all deaths are a loss, this funeral had a different tone. For Private Traver's loved ones, "the grief had already come and gone," he explained. "That sadness had gone. This was really a celebration of welcoming him back."

In fact, the entire weekend was a celebration of PFC Traver's life, as well as the life and service of all past and present Marines and military personnel.

Private Traver's family felt particularly gratified.

"It's kind of a relief," Mr. Silliman told The Evangelist. "He's home. He's interred."

But "is it finished? It'll never be finished," he added.

Emotional
A few of PFC Traver's personal effects have been returned to the family, including the Boy Scout knife and his helmet. The knife will be put into the ground near where the remains are buried; a token that his mother sent him before he headed off to war, the young man had carried it throughout his service.

Father Fleming said he was nervous about presiding at the funeral. It was larger than most services he leads, and since it was on a Sunday, he'd had other Masses to celebrate that morning, as well.

"Some of the emotions hit me as the day went on," he said.

Mr. Blasl said the day went by in a blur. "People talked about it afterward," he said.

The funeral director pointed to the timing of the ceremony, noting that there seemed to be more commemorations this year of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., as well.

The remains of 34 other Marines killed at Tarawa had also been identified by History Flight.[[In-content Ad]]

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