Homecoming For Mobile World War II Veteran

Mobile Pensacola Lt. Woodie McVay’s plane was shot down in 1944 during the war. His body returned to the Gulf Coast today.

by Chad Petri

Published: Fri, July 10, 2009 - 12:54 pm CST Last Updated: Fri, July 10, 2009 - 1:10 pm CST

As a plane taxies into Pensacola airport, a family awaits the unloading of special and sacred cargo. It’s the body of World War II pilot and Mobile native Woodie McVay.

“Just overcome, to have some closure to it anyway because I always wondered what had happened to him,” says McVay’s widow Annie Owen. Lieutenant Woodie McVay was shot down over the island of Saipan in 1944. He was buried by locals and later moved to a military cemetery in the Philippines. He was buried as an unknown and lost until about three years ago. With the help of World War II researcher Ted Darcy and family members, he was found. He was brought home today, July 10, 2009.

“We knew what happened to him but we had to find what grave he was in and he was in an unknown grave and the difficulty was getting a hold of the records,” says granddaughter Elizabeth Huff. While family members say they're glad this day's finally come, they also say Woodie McVay's story is one of many.

“There are others that could be identified now that Ted Darcy has created a database, it is a lot easier to locate these bodies if we could all work together,” says Huff. For some in the family, the homecoming brings back a flood of memories.

“So you just kind of push it to the back of your mind and this brought it all back again and it made it pretty rough,” says Annie Owen. Elizabeth Huff says this quest was surreal. She teamed up with researchers a few years ago to find her grandfather and help bring his body home.

“I couldn't be more proud of my grandfather who I didn’t know, but come to know and love very much,” says Huff. Woodie McVay will be buried with full military honors in Mobile on Monday. Service will be at 10 am at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mobile and burial will be at Pine Crest Cemetery at 11 am. For more information about Ted Darcy’s work on piecing together histories of World War II Veterans, you can click here.

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