After 81 years, a family finally says goodbye to its war hero

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — On Veterans Day, as the nation honors those who served, one Washington family is marking a different kind of milestone: the return of a beloved uncle who never came home from World War II.

Terri Trick never knew her Uncle Howard. But she has spent a lifetime getting to know him through faded photographs, military medals, and family stories passed down.

"There's tons and tons of pictures in here of Howard growing up, Howard when he was a kid, and even when he was a baby," Trick said, carefully leafing through a well-worn album in her home.

One photograph captures her uncle's playful spirit — a slight smirk crossing his face. "He's like, 'okay, I can sit here serious for a second before I tell another joke,'" she said, smiling at the memory of a man she never met.

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