SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — After 80 years of uncertainty, a 93-year-old San Francisco woman is overwhelmed and in awe as her brother, a World War II airman declared missing in action, is finally brought home to the Bay Area.

Though the memories are hazy after all this time, Margery Wong remembers 1944 like it was yesterday. When news came to her front door that her brother, then 20-year old, Sergeant Yuen Hop, was missing in action.

“He enlisted when he was about 18. I was probably about 12 years old. My dad was working in the orchards…and my mom…I think she took it pretty bad.”

Army Air Force Sgt. Yuen Hop’s plane had been shot down on a mission in Germany. Details at the time were slim.

“None of us really knew what was going on,” says Margery as she told her story alongside her husband Phil, from their longtime San Francisco home.

Margery says she and her brothers and sisters were the only Chinese family in Sebastopol at the time. She remembers drying apples with her family and spending what little time they could together.

Attempts at searching for Yuen Hop ebbed and flowed throughout the years, with help from complete strangers, the Army and various organizations. Everything changed in June of 2024…with a single call.

“We were in West Portal, and we were walking, and then the phone rang. I was wondering if it was really true or not. Phil, and I were so shocked, we were so surprised after all these years.”

Thanks to DNA technology and a 2013 match of information on three captured airmen at a cemetery in Germany, Sgt. Yuen Hop would finally come home to the United States. His flag-draped casket arrived at San Francisco International Airport, on Friday, January 31, 2025. The symbolism and moment in time…were overwhelming for Margery.

“Being that it’s Chinese New Year. There were about 50 or 60 people out there with all the servicemen. The passengers were on the plane and they were all looking getting to the windows…it’s very different. All this attention. Different in a good way.”

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About 20,000 Chinese Americans served in World War II, even despite the Chinese Exclusion Act. A number of organizations help reunite the missing with their families. It’s painstaking, long work.

“I am just so amazed.” says Ed Gor, director of the Chinese American World War Two Congressional Gold Medal Project. He explained the extent the Department of POW/MIA Accounting Agency went to in order to help locate Hop.

“They take this attitude of no one left behind. They send research teams out to Italy, Germany, France, Italy. We had to go to churches, neighborhood centers, congregations where we knew Chinese were, and of course, San Francisco and Oakland. We had Chinese from 38 different states, including Idaho and Wyoming…you can imagine how hard it is for work to get to them we’re doing this.”

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Margery’s sense of closure serves as reminder to anyone looking for answers.

“Keep looking and keep asking. I don’t think they should give up hope….because you never know.” smiles Margery.

Sgt. Yuen Hop will be laid to rest with full honors at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno on Friday, February 7.

Learn more about the Chinese American WW2 Congressional Gold Medal Project here.