MIA For 80 Years This Minnesotan Is Coming Home For Good

There’s something especially heartwarming and heartbreaking about stories like this, all at the same time.

Lt. Thomas Ruth is finally coming home after being missing in action for more than 80 years.

A MINNESOTA FAMILY GETS CLOSURE

A Minnesota family is finally getting the chance to lay their loved one to rest after decades of not knowing a young man's fate.

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AERIAL MISSION ENDS IN TRAGEDY

Looking at this black-and-white photo, you realize he was just a young man with his whole life ahead of him, and then this happened. Another life ended too soon.

Lt. Thomas Ruth, a native of Jackson, Minnesota, was killed during World War II while serving on an aerial mission in the Pacific on June 30, 1943.

MISSING IN ACTION

According to the article, Thomas Ruth’s aircraft disappeared during the mission, and it was later believed the plane crashed in a jungle area near Munda Island, close to Roviana Lagoon, but no one really knew for sure whether that was the case.

For years, his family had no answers. Did he initially survive the plane crash? Was he captured? After being listed as missing for nearly two and a half years, Lt. Ruth was officially declared dead in January of 1946, but no one knew for sure if that was the case.

A BREAKTHROUGH

In 2013, an investigation team discovered the wreckage of a Wildcat fighter plane at a crash site in the Pacific.

Human remains were recovered from the aircraft and were believed to possibly belong to Lt. Ruth. Those remains were later studied in a laboratory, where scientists compared them with samples provided by Ruth’s family.

Finally, more than 80 years after his death, officials were able to positively identify Lt. Thomas Ruth in April of 2025.

After all this time, this young man is finally coming home.

RIVERSIDE CEMETERY IN JACKSON

Thomas will be buried in his hometown of Jackson on Wednesday, May 27th, 2026. Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. at Riverside Cemetery.

It’s impossible not to think about how young he was, and how many years his family waited without truly knowing what happened to him.

While the story is incredibly sad, there’s also something meaningful about the fact that he was never forgotten and that after more than eight decades, he will finally be laid to rest at home in Minnesota.