After Six Decades, Marine's Remains Arrive in Bay Area

Sequoia High School grad James Austin Sisney came home Thursday, 63 years after his remains had been lost in a remote island of the South Pacific, 440 miles north of New Caledonia.

Sisney, who joined the military a few weeks after graduation, when he was 17, was among a group of Marines who died on April 22, 1944, after their plane crashed on Espiritu Santo, the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, during a night training mission. Sisney was 19 at the time.

The crash site was discovered in 2007 by a relative of 2nd Lt. Walter B. Vincent Jr., who also perished in the accident.

Sisney will , which will take place Friday at . His headstone has been in place all these years, given to the family by the Marines when he was reported missing in action and presumed dead.

He will also be honored at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Marines from the were there to escort Sisney's casket from the airport.

During World War II, the island was used by Allied forces as a military supply and support base, naval harbor, and airfield. More than two million soldiers passed through the area, with as many as 100,000 at any given time.

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