A Minnesota Marine killed in a deadly World War II disaster is finally being laid to rest, more than 82 years after he vanished in a wall of fire at Pearl Harbor. The remains of Pvt. Ernest LaVerne Lund arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport just after 4:30 a.m., escorted by the Patriot Guard, before heading north to the small Minnesota communities that remember him.
Lund was born November 10, 1915, in Cannon Falls Township, Goodhue County, according to his obituary published by legacy.com; he was from Markville, Minnesota. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in November 1943 at age 27, one of 14 brothers and sisters from a Minnesota farming family, the obituary states. Lund was assigned to Company B, 2nd Armored Amphibian Battalion, Second Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, according to that same account — though a separate memorial page from Missing Marines describes him serving with Baker Company, 2nd Armored Amphibian Battalion.
Lund died on May 21, 1944, while working aboard USS LST-353 when an explosion tore through West Loch at Pearl Harbor, per the obituary. Thirty-four ships had gathered at West Loch to load ammunition and supplies ahead of the invasion of Saipan when the blast ignited a chain reaction, according to Navy history cited by Stars and Stripes. The disaster destroyed six landing ship tanks and killed at least 163 service members while injuring 396 others, that outlet reports.
Decades as an Unknown
Because Lund's body could not be identified in the chaos, he was listed as missing in action for decades, according to KSTP. The breakthrough did not come quickly. In 1985, kayakers discovered human remains in the wreckage of a partially submerged tank landing ship near the disaster site, the Missing Marines memorial notes.
It still took decades more to put a name to those remains. The grave of unknown service members was disinterred again in 2026, and additional DNA samples from children of Ernest's siblings finally made identification possible, according to the obituary. Three separate portions of the recovered remains were confirmed to be Lund's, and on May 14, 2026, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency positively identified him, Missing Marines reports.
The case is part of a broader push by the agency to identify the dead of the West Loch disaster. As part of what's known as the West Loch Project, eight sets of remains were disinterred so investigators could contact families for DNA samples and other information, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The West Loch and Port Chicago disasters together prompted the Navy to overhaul how it handled munitions and played a role in spurring desegregation of the military, Stars and Stripes notes.
A Record Year for Identifications
Lund's case lands amid what the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency describes as a milestone year. The agency identified the remains of 250 service members who had been unaccounted for from past conflicts in fiscal year 2026, exceeding its previous record, according to the agency's own account.
Minnesota has seen a string of these homecomings in 2026. In May, the remains of Army Capt. Willibald Charles Bianchi of New Ulm were laid to rest after more than 80 years, with the Twin Cities Pioneer Press reporting his identification came in August with the help of genetic analysis, followed by a graveside service and full military honors in New Ulm. In September, Pvt. Duane Payne, missing since being wounded in Germany in 1944, was buried at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, according to InForum.
Services Set for Webster and Markville
Lund's remains will lie in state at Swedberg-Taylor Funeral Home in Webster from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, October 15 and 16, according to the obituary. A funeral service is scheduled at Markville Cemetery this weekend, with the Patriot Guard set to escort his remains there with full military honors. As reported by FOX 9, the funeral service is planned for 1 p.m. on October 17 at Markville Cemetery, closing a chapter that began on a burning ship at Pearl Harbor more than eight decades ago.
