If Neal Kenneth Todd had died last week, he would have been 101 years old.

Instead, the remains laid to rest Saturday at the Akeley Cemetery were those of a U.S. Navy fireman who gave his life on Dec. 7, 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Todd’s ship, the USS Oklahoma, sank quickly in the waters off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. His was one of 429 lives lost on board.

Although the Oklahoma sailors’ remains were recovered later in the 1940s, most of them remained unidentified until they could be identified through recent genetic tests.

Todd’s remains were identified on Feb. 11. As his funeral program states, “He is no longer considered Missing in Action. He is finally home.”

Todd’s burial Saturday in the Akeley Cemetery, between his half-brother Alfred Staffenhagen, Jr. and his mother Irena, was accompanied by full military honors. These included a three-volley, three-gun salute; U.S. military service flags presented to three members of Todd’s family; two U.S. Air Force flyovers; and a white-glove treatment by both active and retired service personnel.

“This is one of the highest honors I’ll ever have in my entire career,” said Kevin Cease with the Cease Family Funeral Home. “This is such a unique situation, in that we get to bring somebody home after all these decades and all these years: somebody who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country, on Pearl Harbor Day! He gets to come home. I’m moved beyond tears.”

Voyage home

It was a long journey home – nearly 80 years long.

“It’s a long overdue homecoming,” said Todd’s nephew, Tony Staffenhagen. “We feel that he’s our hero, and he’s a Minnesota hero.”

Fireman 1st Class Neal K. Todd was one of nine brothers and three sisters raised by Irena Todd Staffenhagen and her two husbands, Robert Todd and Alfred Staffenhagen. Eight of her sons served in the U.S. armed forces; Neal’s brother, Wesley, was actually on board the Oklahoma when it was attacked, but he survived.

Born in Bemidji, Neal graduated from Akeley High School in 1938. He enlisted in the U.S.Navy in October 1940 at age 20, and was 22 when he gave his life for his country.

After several temporary resting places in Hawaii, Neal made his final journey last week. Approximately 60 family members met him at the airport in the Twin Cities.

Tony called the experience “a powerful day” that brought a lot of emotions to the surface.

“We’re used to talking about Neal as a family,” he said. “To be actually able to see it coming true is pretty incredible. … It really got real the moment the plane started turning on the tarmac, and all of a sudden you had the dual water cannons going off over the top of the aircraft.”

The mood intensified as Neal’s casket was removed from the plane and throughout the four-hour drive to Akeley and Nevis. It started with fire departments in the Twin Cities area saluting the funeral procession with flags on bridges along the route, Tony said. The family saw more of the same in towns farther north.

“Then we started seeing people along the roads,” he said, “with the flags, and saluting Neal as he was coming through.”

In Akeley, he said, people lined the streets as the hearse went by. Some of them posted pictures on social media, including what Tony described as a perfect shot of the hearse in front of the Paul Bunyan statue – “almost like the true ‘welcome home,’” he said.

If anything, Neal’s reception in Nevis was “even more incredible,” said Tony, who was riding one car behind the hearse with his father, Orville Staffenhagen. Orville is Neal’s youngest half-brother, one of his two surviving siblings.

“Many times, tears were shed along the way,” Tony recalled. “Just looking at the outpouring of people, coming out to support and honor his brother … the outpouring of love and patriotism towards him. You really can’t find words for that.”

He acknowledged the response from the local American Legion and VFW units, the Patriot Guard and the Marine Corps League.

To explain, in part, why firefighters are especially keen to honor Neal Todd, Tony recalled Dwayne Mattson with Nevis Fire and Rescue telling him, “He may not have been a fireman on a truck, but he was a fireman.”

Kevin Todd, another Neil Todd nephew who serves on the Chisago City Fire Department, wore his dress whites to the funeral.

“This was very awesome,” he said. “Me, my brother and my son were the last ones to put our DNA in, and within six months after that, they identified his remains. So, our DNA really brought it to life.”

Kevin agreed that Neal’s reception was wonderful, from the pilot who flew the remains into the Twin Cities stepping off the plane to talk with Orville to the crowds lining the streets of towns along the 193-mile route north.

Kevin said knowing Neil has been identified and is home “gave us a lot of peace.”

“There’s a lot of love coming from a lot of people up here, and we do appreciate it as a family,” Tony said.

Remembering Neal Todd

Tony Staffenhagen said when the family talks about his Uncle Neal, he is remembered as one of the more sociable, outgoing and happy-go-lucky boys in the family.

Orville, on the other hand, remembered Neal as a “hard luck guy,” explaining, “Hard luck always came his way.”

Todd’s funeral mass was celebrated by Father Tony Ferndando at Our Lady of the Pines Catholic Church in Nevis. U.S. Navy Chaplain Lt. Derek E. Martin delivered the sermon.

“Neal joined the Navy due to a sense of commitment to his family, his friends and his nation,” Martin said. He went on to describe the rights Neal voluntarily gave up so that others might enjoy those rights, concluding, “On Dec. 7, 1941, Neal made the ultimate sacrifice and surrendered his own right to live on that infamous day. He stayed the course so others may live, thus protecting his fellow sailors.”

Martin said that through Neal’s baptism, Jesus Christ was eternally by his side.

“We will never know what transpired in the last moments of Fireman 1st Class Neal Kenneth Todd’s life,” said Martin, “but we can surmise, through his strong commitment to family, that Neal, upon the first explosion, set a course to attempt to save his ship and his fellow-sailor family.

“And we will never know where Neal was on board, but we know he was not alone. For Neal was surrounded by his U.S. Navy family, along with countless heartwarming family members in Jesus Christ, our Savior, who wrapped Neal in a compassionate embrace on that infamous day.”

Later during the funeral, Neal’s niece, Rebecca Olafson, shared memories her mother, Neal’s late sister Beverly Peterson, passed along to her. Describing Beverly as an extremely friendly “people person,” Rebecca said, “She told me that Neal was just like her. She would tell me how personable he was and how wonderful he was and how much she loved him.”

After describing gifts that Neal sent Beverly from Hawaii, including a pink handkerchief, Rebecca added, “That pink one is now in the casket with Uncle Neal. He gave it to her, and we’re giving it back to him now.

“We may not have met Uncle Neal, but we know him. We know him through his siblings and the stories they told us, as a community, as a family. And we know him because of generational memories.”

Final honors

Tony said about 100 family members traveled from as far away as Washington state, California and Virginia to say goodbye to a family hero many of them never met in person.

Gov. Tim Walz declared Saturday to be Navy Fireman Neal Kenneth Todd Day. Tony said the family considers it special to see their loved one buried on his own day, while three family flags flew over the Minnesota State Capitol.

“We’ll be able to cherish the fact that he’s getting the hero’s welcome that he should have had,” said Tony.

Alfred Staffenhagen III, yet another nephew of Neal Todd said he couldn’t be more honored that the family’s hero is being buried next to his dad, Alfred Jr. He observed that the whole community is excited about a hometown hero coming home.

“He’s been a family hero from the time we were this big,” Alfred III said, gesturing at thigh level. “My dad was so proud of him, giving his life for his country. Dad served in the Navy twice in Pearl Harbor.”

He said Alfred Jr. was instrumental in setting up a memorial to Neal at the Akeley museum. “It was one of his goals to have the Defense Department identify those remains so he could finally come home,” Alfred III said. “It’s just sad that dad didn’t live long enough to see it come to fruition, but I know he’s smiling down from heaven, knowing that his brother is going to be laid to rest next to him.”