For decades, Geraldine and Clifford Soike of Seattle spoke affectionately of the soldier who brought them together, who went off to war and never returned.

It is firmly entrenched in family lore, how this young soldier whose sacrifice deprived him of marrying and having a family of his own never knew he had kindled a spark that created someone else's.

It all came full circle last week, stunning the Soike family when they opened their morning newspaper to read that 2nd Lt. Ernest E. "Eddie" Martin of Hanover, Mont., who died Nov. 10, 1944 in the frozen hell and ferocious fighting in Germany's Huertgen Forest, was coming home.

Geraldine Soike, now 88 and widowed, learned that Martin's remains had been uncovered in an unmarked grave by a German construction crew in 2000 and, after painstaking effort, identified over the years by U.S. military forensic experts as her friend's.

The slain soldier's only surviving relatives, a niece and nephew living near Ellensburg, provided DNA samples to confirm his identity, but said they never knew a whole lot about their uncle except that he was much missed.

Martin's remains arrived in Washington Thursday, to be transported to Ellensburg to be met by an escort in preparation for his burial with military honors at the IOOF Cemetery in Ellensburg Saturday at 1 p.m.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Soike said Thursday.

"I was shocked. No other country does this," she said of the efforts by the Defense Department's Joint Pow/Mia Accounting Command to recover and identify the nation's missing and fallen.

"I wish my husband was here," Soike added. "My husband and Eddie were really close."

Clifford Soike, a WW II Navy veteran, died last year. He was working at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton in 1944 when he met Martin in Seattle. The two became fast friends.

Martin, a UW grad, took a commission in the Army to join the war effort that year. Soike, who after the war made a career in trucking, was simultaneously joining the Navy.

Geraldine Soike was Geraldine Fabian back in 1944. She and Martin knew each other from having grown up and gone to school in Hanover, a small mining town near Lewiston, Mont. All the kids were pals and retained the friendships when they went to Seattle.

Martin went to the UW to earn a degree in mechanical engineering and an Army commission through the ROTC program. Geraldine and her twin sister, Frances, and a cousin came to Seattle in 1944 and took jobs at Boeing.

"Eddie was a fun guy, and he really liked my younger sister, but she never dated him," Soike recalls.

The Lewiston group occasionally got together. One day, Martin invited his buddy, Clifford Soike, to meet everyone.

"He told Clifford, 'let me introduce you the some twins from Lewiston,'" Geraldine Soike recalls, laughing.

The rest is history. Geraldine and Clifford were instantly inseparable, sharing a love of the outdoors and skiing.

The last time they saw Martin was before he shipped out for Europe that summer of 1944.

There was no get together, no lingering good-bye. Lots of men were coming and going to the war.

Clifford Soike was concerned, however, that his friend was headed toward an outfit engaged in fierce combat across Europe after the D-Day landings in Normandy in June, heading toward Germany.

Martin had been with the 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division about a week when it squared off with the German Army in the frozen, dense Huertgen Forest, in what is considered the longest and fiercest battle in U.S. military history.

He became missing in action on Nov. 10, 1944. He was declared dead almost a year later, on Nov. 11, 1945.

Clifford and Geraldine didn't learn what happened to him until they were married a month later, on Dec. 7, 1945, when Soike left the Navy.

"We heard about it when we came home from our honeymoon," she says. "I knew his sister lived in Ellensburg but we did not know her last name. We were never able to find her."

But the Soikes never forgot.

Martin, who died at 24 without a wife or family of his own, left behind one in the Soike's. He became a figure even in their children's lives.

Their son, also Clifford, and daughter, Joanne Fraser, recall that Martin frequently was mentioned with affection by their parents through the decades. At their father's funeral last year, Martin's memory was emotionally invoked.

Clifford has since spoken with Martin's niece, who is collecting memories of her uncle.

At 88, Geraldine, of Seattle's Wedgewood neighborhood, isn't sure she would be able to make it to Martin's funeral this weekend.

Maybe one day she might communicate with his survivors, perhaps share some photos and memories, she said.

When Soike read of Martin's recovery last week, she immediately had to tell her children and began digging out the precious few photos she has of the couple's friend.

"It's amazing that he was in an unmarked grave. The battle he was in was the worst in American history. I can't believe it; he is home from the war," she said.