A fallen World War II veteran has been brought home for a final farewell, 77 years after he died.

United States Army Private Stephen Mason, of Jersey City, was reported missing in action after his patrol failed to return from a mission on Nov. 3, 1944. His body was never recovered, and he was officially declared non-recoverable in 1951.

Then, in 2015, the Army’s Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency began research focused on finding soldiers missing from Mason’s patrol. This summer, through dental records and mitochondrial DNA, scientists matched remains presumed to be Mason’s to Karol Krychkowsk, Mason’s niece. The match finally gave the family some closure.

“It means a lot because it's 77 years coming, and it was my grandmother's wish that he would come home. He left at 19, she kissed him goodbye and never saw him again,” Krychkowsk says. “He died at 21, the age of 21.”

The Jersey City Police Department, where Mason’s father worked, and fellow Jersey City veterans attended a memorial service for Mason on Friday.

“Now that I found that he was killed in Market Garden, it was operation Market Garden in World War II, I found myself there and it was a special connection for me, so I had to be here,” says Vietnam War veteran Tony Goodson.

Mason will be laid to rest alongside his parents and grandfather on Nov. 3 at North Arlington Cemetery.