"Sixty-eight years after he was killed on Dec. 7, 1941," The Honolulu Advertiser writes, DNA lifted from envelopes that 18-year-old sailor Gerald Lehman licked when he sent letters home to his mother have helped identify his remains.

Now, the remains will be brought from Hawaii back to Michigan. His mother died in 2005. Her daughter, Peggy Germain, said it was the woman's "dearest wish" to have Lehman's body brought home for burial. It was Germain's research that led to the discovery that Lehman's remains had been buried with others in Hawaii — and eventually to the DNA tests that confirmed the identity.

(H/T to On Deadline.)