Woburn welcomes home fallen soldier

The body of Staff Sergeant James Bernard Moore, a 21-year-old from Woburn who went by the nickname “Dinty,’’ returned to his hometown yesterday, 66 years after he went missing during World War II, with all the pomp and circumstance fitting for a US serviceman killed in action. He will be buried Saturday with the same honors.

The ceremony will punctuate a poignant story of sacrifice and respect, a family’s promise to never forget, and a town’s recognition of one of its own.

“He was a soldier, he did his job, he did what he was trained to do,’’ his niece Lynne Valante said yesterday. “We’re just grateful that he’s home.’’

It is a journey that began in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea, where Moore and fellow soldiers with the Army Air Corps had been conducting a sea- search mission when their plane went down in 1943. They were declared Missing in Action on Nov. 20 of that year, with no evidence revealing if the plane had crashed at sea or on land.

The 11 crew members were remembered with markers in the American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. In the years after his death, his mother was presented with a Purple Heart, an Air Medal, and a Citation of Honor.

But his family, and his town, never forgot.

In 1995, the United Veterans Council of Woburn dedicated in his name the corner of Conn and Bryant streets, in Woburn’s South End, where he grew up. Soon after, Valante and her father, David Moore, one of 10 siblings, started to search for any information about the lost plane. What happened, where did it crash, did all onboard die?

“The family just wanted to know,’’ Valante said.

In the 1980s, locals reported they had found the plane in the jungles of New Guinea, and notified US military officials. Still, the area was thick and tough to get to, located in a gully complex. A major landslide had occurred, making access to the site dangerous. It wasn’t until 2004 that an Army team was able to reach the site, clear the area, and begin an assessment. Moore’s brother John and his sister Mary Ellen Cressey - his sole survivors - were asked to give a DNA sample. The family learned last Memorial Day weekend that the remains found were of Moore and his comrades, that the plane wreckage was indeed from their B-24D.

Military officials believe the plane went down in bad weather.

Valante only wished her father had known. A World War II veteran himself, he died a year before the Army team reached the wreckage.

“I know it is exactly the way my father would have wanted, too, just the respect for a long-lost boy coming home,’’ she said.

Woburn likes to consider itself a patriotic town, its mayor, Thomas L. McLaughlin said yesterday, and in this case it was no different.

Just before noon yesterday, his family was escorted by State and local police and the Patriot Guard Riders to Logan Airport, where they were taken to the tarmac. Moore’s casket was first off the plane, welcomed by an Army honor guard.

Valante and her uncle John, 89, were there waiting. Cressey, now 86, is expected to arrive for Saturday’s funeral.

“I never thought the day would come that I would see my brother Jimmy come home,’’ John Moore said. “It was one of the happiest and proudest days of my life. My thanks to all those who helped bring him back to Woburn with a real hero’s welcome.’’

The family was taken back to Woburn in a parade-like caravan, along Montvale Avenue and through Woburn Common, which was decorated with American flags. Some 100 City Hall workers came out and saluted, and two Fire Department ladder trucks hoisted a large American flag over Main Street just as the caravan reached Lynch-Cantillon Funeral Home.

Arrangements are being made there: A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. in St. Charles Church, 280 Main St., and a burial with full military honors will follow at Calvary Cemetery.

McLaughlin said a full ceremony, and the welcoming reception yesterday, are deserving of a soldier who made the “ultimate sacrifice.’’

“It just shows people don’t forget,’’ the mayor said. “The sacrifice is the same whether it was World War II, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, or Afghanistan.’’

For the Moore family, the welcome was touching. Aside from town officials who helped coordinate Moore’s return, local veterans groups participated. The Patriot Guard Riders, formed in 2005 to escort soldiers killed in today’s wars, arrived to honor a soldier deserving of the same recognition.

“To see people coming out of their homes, and stopping their cars, it touched my family a lot,’’ Valante said. “Just the respect was overwhelming.’’

Milton Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@globe.com.