After 81 Years, Marine Killed in World War II Returns Home

On June 15, 1944, Marine Pfc. Helmut Fred Behlert boarded a landing craft bound for the beaches of Saipan, part of the Pacific campaign that brought major Japanese cities and factories within range of U.S. bombers.

He died that Thursday.

Now, nearly 81 years later, on a cold Thursday night at San Francisco International Airport, his niece, Ruth Green, 94, gently patted the American flag draped over the coffin carrying his remains and welcomed home the man she still called "Uncle Helm."

"I'm just so glad that I've got him back home where he can rest," Green said moments later. "It was very emotional for me. I didn't think it would be after all these years, but it brought tears to my eyes."

Behlert's remains arrived aboard a commercial flight from Hawaii shortly after 9 p.m.

As the casket was lowered from the cargo hold, the wind snapped a line of American flags amid the roar of jet engines and flashing emergency lights. Marines marched across the tarmac and carried Behlert's casket to a waiting hearse as family members, airport personnel, firefighters, law enforcement officers and veterans looked on.

Then Green stepped forward to touch the American flag, reawaking memories of silly games and the playful uncle she remembered from childhood.

"He was my favorite relative of all," she said. He was 27 when he died.

On Tuesday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a resolution sponsored by Supervisors Jackie Speier and Lisa Gauthier honoring Behlert for his military service and sacrifice to the nation. On Wednesday, he will be buried with full military honors at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno. Supervisor Speier will present the resolution to Green and her family.

"There's always a right time to honor those extraordinary American soldiers who put country above self," Speier said.

Born in Salt Lake City on Oct. 25, 1916, Behlert deployed overseas with the Marines in October 1942 as a scout. He fought at Guadalcanal and Tarawa before joining the assault on Saipan.

The assault began on June 15, 1944, in what became one of the largest and deadliest amphibious landings of World War II. Thousands of American service members were killed in the effort to bring U.S. bombers within striking distance of key Japanese targets.

Green recalls being told her uncle had been lost at sea.

Then, in 2001, Green's sister-in-law read a column by advice columnist Ann Landers about efforts to identify missing American service members through family DNA. Green's brother submitted a DNA sample.

By the time military officials identified Behlert's remains through advances in DNA analysis, Behlert's mother, brother and sisters had all died.

In December 2025, Green said she received a phone call from the Marines.

"At first everybody kept telling me it was a scam," she said. "Then I believed him after a while."

Green, who was born in 1931, grew up in San Francisco, worked at IBM - she could type so fast she broke the springs on the typewriter - and raised her family in the East Bay.

Still a child when her uncle went to war, she remembers him as playful and kind. Once, after she fell running to meet him and cut her knee on broken glass, he covered the wound with his hand so she would not see the blood and start crying.

"I still have a scar on this knee," she said. "I thought he was wonderful."

Marine Staff Sgt. Jonathan Peralta, who escorted Behlert's remains back to California, said the assignment affected him more deeply than he expected. Peralta is 27, the same age Behlert was when he died.

When looking Green in the eyes, Peralta said, "It definitely hit harder than I would have expected. It's something I haven't felt before.... I let Ms. Green know that it has been the honor of my lifetime to bring back home our warrior. I'm just glad we finally brought him home and he can finally rest in peace where he belongs. The cloth that we wear, we are only wearing it because of people like him."

Behlert was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, among others. He was killed on the first day of fighting in the Battle of Saipan.

Following the transfer of Behlert's casket from the plane, the hearse left the airport with a police escort, motorcycles with flashing lights leading the procession north to Duggan's Serra Mortuary in Daly City.

At the mortuary, members of the Patriot Guard Riders carried the casket into a room where Peralta inspected the open casket to ensure a new and fully pressed uniform, laid above Behlert's remains, was properly aligned.

Green rose from a pew to gently run her fingers over the crisp uniform before the coffin was sealed.

"It means the world to me," Green said. "He'll finally be laid at rest, and nothing else is going to harm him ever."

Katrina Rill
Office of Supervisor Jackie Speier
650-380-1951
[email protected]