ATLANTA — A World War II soldier who had been missing in action for nearly 80 years will finally be laid to rest in his metro Atlanta hometown.

U.S. Army Private First Class Hood Cole died in Jan. 1945 while assigned to the 70th Infantry Division in France, but his family never knew what happened to him. The Army listed him as “MIA” and “unrecoverable.”

“For them to put all this effort in and bring him back and identify him and go through the full military honors, it’s just been fantastic. The only regret we have is that my grandmother didn’t live to see it,” Sgt. Rusty Midkiff said.

Cole’s family said his remains were actually found in 1978, but no one knew who he was until DNA evidence linked Cole to his family.

He will be laid to rest on the 80th anniversary of the day he enlisted in the Army.