For years, the family of Gerald "Mike" Kight has wondered: What happened to the handsome 23-year-old who went to war with his three brothers and one brother-in-law, but never came home? He lives on in old photographs and family lore, but he disappeared following a battle along Wylerbaan Road in the Netherlands, between Groesbeek and the little town of Wyler, Germany, in World War II. He was one of 39 Americans who were never found following clashes in the area with German troops in late September 1944.
The mystery, at last, will be laid to rest at West Klickitat Cemetery in White Salmon, Wash., on May 19, following a noontime memorial service at Gardner Funeral Home.
A Dutch farmer was turning the soil in his cornfield last September when he saw bones jutting from the ground. That brought out the Royal Netherlands Army's Recovery and Identification Unit, which unearthed two sets of human bones, in what apparently were two depressions about 100 yards apart
Dog tags found in the foxhole in the Dutch cornfield and delivered recently to Frances and Robert Hembree of Southeast Portland.
The remains in one depression, which may have been formed when a shell landed in the battle, were so fragmentary and so incomplete that they haven't yet been identified. The remains in the foxhole were more complete. They belonged to a man lying on his back with his knees elevated -- and they rested with the dog tags of Gerald Kight.
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