FREEPORT (WIFR) -- It took 60 years but today the remains of a Korean War veteran and Freeport native were welcomed home and laid to rest.

Freeport native Private First Class Arthur Hodapp died in a North Korean POW camp. 60 years later he's returning home.

"He was patriotic. He thought it was his duty to sign up as a reserve when he finished his tour in Germany. 'So he wasn't drafted, he went voluntarily?' No he went voluntarily. He wanted to do it because he had three brothers in World War II and nobody could show him up," says Hodapp's sister Frances Meyers.

The U.S. military kept in contact with Meyers over the last decade as they searched for her brother's remains. This past winter she received the good news he'd been found and Sunday Arthur landed at O'Hare airport in Chicago.

"At the end of these 60 years that we thought about him he couldn't come back to us and now this is closure," says Meyers.

Hodapp was laid to rest at St. Joseph cemetery to a full military funeral. Dozens of area Korean War vets showed up to pay their respects as their brother in arms was buried in his hometown.

According to Meyers the military found far more remains of her brother than expected. They were able to positively identify him through DNA testing before flying him home.