WEST — It was 1942. Leo J. Husak was looking forward to a life he loved as a farmer in West, Texas. Then came the draft. Brother Johnney Husak said less than a year after graduation, Leo was headed to Camp Wolters in Texas and then Camp Butner in North Carolina.
In 1944 Army Corporal Leo Husak entered combat in Europe.
His family eagerly awaited his return home. But, in 1945, now Staff Sgt. Leo J Husak went on patrol in Germany's Hürtgen Forest. Johnney Husak said his group was attacked as they approached a snow bank. Leo Husak was hit, and when the skirmish was over he had disappeared. Husak was shortly after reported killed in action. Leo's Mother Julia prayed that his body would be returned to the family, but the Husak family expected it would never happen.
Little did the family know, Leo's body was recovered by the Army several months afterwards. Johnney Husak, said the Army could not find enough information to identify the remains. The body was buried in The Netherlands with the designation X1043. Later the Army transferred the remains to Omaha, Nebraska, but Leo's identity was still a mystery.
More than 50 years later, however, there was still hope. The Department of Defense had begun to use DNA samples to identify the remains of service members during the first Gulf War in 1991. Leo's three brothers sent DNA samples to the Department of Defense DNA Repository in 2000. It was their last shot.
A lab in Omaha did finally run the sample. And in February, the family got a call that fulfilled a hope more than 70 years old.
"It was a surprise and just a shock." Edwin Husak said. "Something that we had been hoping and praying for many years. All of a sudden on February 14th we get the phone call that his remains have been found and identified, and that is just amazing. It's hard to express in words what a peace it brought to us."
Leo J Husak was honored at the West Brethren Church and laid to rest at the West Brethren Cemetery on Saturday, June 23. He has been laid right next to his mother, who had prayed he would one day be returned.
"That was momma's wish," Edwin Husak said. "I heard her say so many times 'I wish we could find Leo'... it's never too late."