Body of American hero from WWII finally arrives back in Colorado

In a touching display of honor, a plane carrying the remains of an American war hero from Denver arrived at Denver International Airport Friday morning, where military members helped guide the coffin to a waiting hearse.

Amid the noise of the airport, the scene was remarkably quiet and somber.

Sgt. Harold Schafer was finally home, 80 years later.

Schafer was remembered as a sweet young man by his surviving niece in a conversation with CBS News Colorado in April.

"Just a real sweetheart, just a regular Joe," said Barb Bernhardt from her suburban Denver home.

His mother never recovered from his loss or the fact that he was still missing.

She died before ever finding out what happened to his body. For years, she sent letter after letter to the Army, begging for information on where his body might be.

The family gathered to remember him in 1961 when a grave marker was placed at Fort Logan in his memory.

"It was just heartbreaking. Especially to my grandma. My grandma was never the same. She just deteriorated, and my grandpa too," said Bernhardt.

The family, recent immigrants, lived in Denver's Globeville. His father was of German descent, but the family had come from Russia. Harold attended Denver schools, worked for a luggage company in the city, and coached girls' softball.

In 1943, he either enlisted or joined the Army; the facts are lost to history. Being older and more mature than many of the other soldiers at 27, he quickly rose to the rank of sergeant. "It has to be a pretty special person to be a coach, and I knew he would have been wonderful with the young people that he had under him," Bernhardt said.

His unit arrived in mainland Europe on Day 2 of D-Day. They fought their way across France. In December 1944, at the age of 28, his unit was involved in heavy fighting just inside the German border at Dillingen.

Allied forces were trying to push German fighters back into their own country. Schafer's young wife received word that her husband was missing and later learned the Army concluded he had been killed.

The family was told he was killed while standing up in a foxhole to help a fellow soldier who had been shot. He was hit in the face and killed instantly. In the intense fighting, the 90th Division was driven back across the Saar River.

His body was never recovered. Later, it was buried by a local clergyman, but without identification. The body remained there until 1946, when the American Graves Registration Command located bodies from the fighting and reinterred remains at Colleville-sur-Mer, France. However, they were still not identified.

In 2018, a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency historian studying unaccounted-for soldiers determined Schafer's remains might be among those in France, identified only as X-4651 St. Avold.

The remains were exhumed in 2021 and extensively tested in an attempt to identify them. Schafer was identified through location and wound information, as well as dental and anthropological evidence and DNA analysis.

"The forensic process that they go through is just unbelievable," said Bernhardt.

The remains were brought to Denver Friday for burial Monday at Fort Logan National Cemetery. Full military honors will be provided.

The family will receive the flag that covers the coffin of Schafer—a final tribute to a young man who gave his life for his country.

In a letter to the family following his loss, which Bernhardt still keeps, Schafer's friend and commanding officer, Lt. Robert W. Landis, wrote heartfelt words about his devotion. "Harold and I were very close," he wrote. "We shared the same hole, ate the same grub, went through the same hell."

"He never failed us," Landis wrote. "All the boys who will come back won't forget how much your Harold and all the other Harolds gave up to make it possible."

Bernhardt was emotional as she read the letter again.

"He was a good soldier," she said.