Filmmaker Jed Henry and U.S. Army PFC Lawrence S. Gordon. Credit: Photos courtesy of Jed Henry

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Mistaken for a German soldier and buried with the enemy at the end of World War II, a U.S. soldier may finally be coming home thanks in large part to the efforts of a Middleton filmmaker — and despite foot-dragging by U.S. officials.

Science appears to have proven beyond a 99% likelihood what a team of civilian researchers led by documentarian Jed Henry strongly suspected after nearly two years of digging through decades-old military records regarding U.S. Army PFC Lawrence S. Gordon.

When the U.S. government dismissed the civilian research as inconclusive and refused to do DNA testing, Henry took it to the German War Graves Commission and the French government. They jointlygranted permission for DNA to be extracted from the skeletal remains of unknown soldier X-356 in an above-ground German crypt in France last September. The French even agreed to cover the cost.

The mitochondrial DNA in a molar from X-356 — analyzed by the National Forensic Science Institute in France — is a match to Gordon's surviving nephews, according to a letter in French from the official in France in charge of the investigation. Henry released a translation of the letter on Monday to officials in the U.S. government whose job is to identify remains of unknown soldiers.

According to a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist who consulted with the French investigators, the mitochondrial profile from this tooth is present in less than one-half percent of the population. In other words,