A Bangor Veteran is finally getting a memorial in his name, 80 years after his death.

The Bangor Daily News reports that Lt. Austin “Ozzie” Rodney Keith received a memorial plaque earlier this month with the help of local historian and author David Bergquist. The plaque is located in New Hampshire next to the graves of his parents and sister.

Keith joined the Airforce in 1942 after attending the University of Maine and Bangor High School, and fought in the Pacific theater as a B-29 bomber pilot. Kieth and his crew were lost over the Pacific Ocean in 1945 and his remains were never found.

Bergquist also noted Keith’s love of theater, and how he dreamed of being a professional actor after the war. “When he was stationed in different locations he participated in community theater, organized a radio program for his base and was an editor for several flight yearbooks,” Bergquist said. “Had he lived, he may have done very well.”

Bergquist says that with his sister dying in 2010, Keith has no remaining relatives, meaning he might’ve never gotten a memorial marker.

“Austin is one of almost 80,000 young Americans who never returned from World War II,” Berquist said. “They still are what I call ‘among the missing,’ because they never found their remains. That’s true of Austin too.”

To read the original Bangor Daily News article, click here.