UW-Madison lab may help bring WWII soldier home

MADISON, Wis. — The DNA lab at the University of Wisconsin may help bring the final member of a World War II unit home.

Twenty-eight-year-old Pfc. Lawrence Gordon, from Canada, was killed during fighting in Normandy, France in 1944.

Staff Sgt. David Henry of Viroqua was wounded, but eventually came home.

Henry’s grandson Jed Henry, who’s a filmmaker, says Gordon was like a family member to grandfather. The grandson began searching for Gordon in 2011 while making a documentary about his grandfather.

WISC-TV reports after a lot of research, he thinks Gordon ended up in a German cemetery. And he reached out to UW’s Biotechnology Center to confirm it.

The French government is conducting the first tests, comparing DNA to Gordon’s relatives. Wisconsin will then receive the samples for testing.