A World War II pilot buried for years in an unmarked grave on Saipan has been re-interred in his native Alabama.

Navy Lt. Woodie Woodie McVay was shot down in 1944 in the Pacific. His body was located decades later by a historian in a Catholic cemetery on Saipan in the Marianas, the Mobile Press-Register reported.

McVay was buried Monday with his parents in Mobile with full military honors, including a 21-gun salute. Oscar Lipscomb, Catholic archbishop emeritus of Mobile, described him as a "great among the greatest."

His granddaughter, Elizabeth Huff, called the discovery of his body "a miracle."

McVay, 26, left behind a wife and a daughter he never saw. His wife, Annie Ruth Owen, later remarried.

"He gave his life willingly," Owen told WALA-TV. "He's a hero, in my book and a lot of people's."