A family lost 2 sons during WWII. 80 years later their last child is home.

NEW YORK — Elsie Thompson, the youngest of seven children, lost two brothers during World War II. Her sibling Phillip Engesser was returned home to be laid to rest, but her oldest brother, , is only just being brought back to his California hometown more than 80 years after his death thanks to an identification by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

"My mother went through a lot because she lost several sons during the war," Thompson told CBS News."I think it was pretty hard on my mom. is the only one, we didn't have any material of him." The call to identify and recover fallen soldiers was brought to the forefront of the nation's conscience during the Vietnam War, according to Ashley Wright, a public affairs specialist with the DPAA. The United States has"always tried to account for our missing," Wright said, starting with the American Graves Registration Command after World War II. That command would try to make identifications based on the best available science at the time, Wright said.

The process starts with history: Researchers and experts in the agency start by combing through archival records to learn as much as they can about where a fallen soldier was last seen. Investigative teams will travel to the area to talk to any surviving witnesses and examine the area to look for clues to confirm if someone went missing there. .

The remains are then laid out and X-rayed to be matched further, other forms of analysis include mitochondrial DNA analysis and isotope analysis, which can determine what a person was eating decades ago. This can help identify the remains of American soldiers - who typically ate a corn-based diet - from the remains of locals who may have eaten differently. The DPAA has also collected comparison DNA from family members, like Thompson.

"Every case is different and faces its own challenges, and every case is special," Wright said."Every single one of these cases has a family member. Every single one of those has a comrade-in-arms who still wonders what happened to them. That number is definitely not lost on us in any way, shape or form." Members of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency carry transfer case during repatriation for service members missing in action July 25, 2017.

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