A United States Army veteran was laid to rest in Brooklyn Saturday, more than 70 years after he was first reported missing in the Korean War. 

Gary Bilbao said his family was notified back in March that the remains of his uncle, Raymond Smith, had been identified 71 years later.

“We were like 'what is this,' we were like shocked," Bilbao said. 

On Saturday, he was back home and his family gathered for his wake at Clavin Funeral Home in Bay Ridge.

 “They said that his tibia bone was found and it matched up with the DNA that my mother had sent in," Bilbao said. 

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Smith was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, “after his unit was attacked by enemy forces."

He was a native of Brooklyn and raised on 46th street in Sunset Park. Bilbao says the family was overwhelmed with emotions when they welcomed his casket this week at JFK airport.

“There had to be 200 police officers standing when the casket came out of the plane,” Bilbao said.  

Bilbao's mother was Raymond’s older sister — they were both foster children who bounced around different orphanages in the area.

Decades later, Bilbao says they’re still learning things about his Uncle from the Army.

“He joined the navy at 14," Bilbao said. "They found out he was 14 and they gave him an honorable discharge, and then when he was 18 he joined the army, something we didn’t know”

After the wake, Smith was buried with full military honors back in his Sunset Park neighborhood at Green-Wood Cemetery — giving the family a moment they’ve yearned for: to finally say goodbye.

“It’s closure to my mother, 93 years old," Bilbao said. "She hasn’t seen my uncle for 71 years, and Christmas time, she’s always saying about my uncle. We have pictures of him, we have his Purple Heart. So this is definitely closure for the family to have him brought home like this”