‘He’s home.’ WWII soldier has long-awaited South Carolina funeral 77 years after death
The body of a World War II soldier was accounted for more than 77 years after his death. On Sunday, April 10, he was buried in his home state of South Carolina.
“This is something for 78 years we had wondered would he ever come home. He’s home, so there is closure for us,” the soldier’s niece Janet Hawkins told WHNS.
Army Staff Sgt. Grady H. Canup, 30, from Greenwood, a city about 80 miles west of Columbia, was assigned to the Western Front of the war in November 1944 in the Hürtgen Forest, according to a March 11 news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
Canup was reported killed on Nov. 14 when he was hit by an enemy artillery shell in his foxhole, according to his personnel profile.
“Because of the fighting, his body was unable to be recovered,” the agency wrote in the release.
Despite several attempts to find his remains from the American Graves Registration Command — responsible for recovering missing American soldiers in Europe — Canup was declared non-recoverable in December 1951, officials said.
That was until 2019, when a historian from the DPAA determined that unidentified remains discovered in 1947 possibly belonged to Canup, according to the release.
The remains, named X-5450 Neuville, had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. In April 2019, the body was exhumed and sent to a DPAA laboratory in Nebraska for identification, officials said.
The same year, Canup’s identification tag was found in the Hürtgen Forest where the remains were discovered.
Using dental and anthropological analysis, scientists were able to officially identify the remains as Canup’s in January 2022, officials said.
Canup’s name was added to the Tablets of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery along with other soldiers still missing, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission. A rosette will be placed next to his name to note that he now rests in a known gravesite, according to the commission.
Canup was buried on April 10 in Anderson, according to the release.
“Every veteran ought to be honored and appreciated. Especially World War II veterans because of what they did for their country,” Vietnam Veteran Gary Murphy told WHNS.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 4:31 PM with the headline "‘He’s home.’ WWII soldier has long-awaited South Carolina funeral 77 years after death."
