GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A solider who died in WWII is coming home to be buried.

Pvt. 1st Class Willard H. Brinks was killed in action on Nov. 22, 1942, the U.S. Army Human Resources Command Public Affairs Office said in a Wednesday release. The Grand Rapids native was 24 years old.

He had been deployed to present-day Papa New Guinea. His unit was working to flank Japan’s defensive lines, and he was killed the first day of the attack near the Soputa-Sanananda Track, the Army said.

The military was unable to identify his remains until 2022, after the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency worked to review unidentified remains from the Soputa-Sanananda Track.

Brinks will be buried at Garfield Park Cemetery on May 19.