COLUMBUS – After 73 years, Sgt. Harold Burton Davis will be escorted to his final resting place where he will be buried with full military honors.
The remains of the Zanesville native will be returned Thursday afternoon, escorted from Columbus by soldiers, police officers and firefighters.
Davis and 10 other servicemen were killed when their plane crashed in New Guinea in February 1944 but their bodies were lost in the mountainous terrain for 17 years, then were stored in Washington for 56 more until they could be identified.
Burton’s remains will be brought to John Glenn Columbus International Airport Thursday afternoon and will proceed via I-70 and then by city streets through Zanesville’s downtown to the Zanesville Memorial Park, according to the obituary announcement posted by DeLong-Baker & Lanning Funeral Home.
The procession will include escorts from the U.S. Army, Patriot Guard Riders, law enforcement and firefighters from Columbus, West Licking and several other central Ohio fire departments, West Licking fire Lt. Ginger Wortman said.
Davis was 24 years old when his plane crashed in bad weather on Mt. Kenevi, New Guinea. The crash site was not discovered until 1961, when the remains of the 11 soldiers were transported to Washington and finally identified using DNA, according to a report by a Zanesville television station.
Davis’s mother never stopped believing he was alive and died not knowing what became of her son.
Following the graveside service, American Legion Post 29, 27 S. 3rd Street, will host a wake in Davis’s honor.