SARATOGA — Nearly 70 years after Army Pfc. John W. Martin vanished in North Korea, his remains are coming home. The soldier will be buried next to his mother, Nellie, who never gave up hope he would be the next person to walk through the door.

"She waited every day for him to come home," Martin's niece, Marina Wilson of Gansevoort, said Monday.

Martin grew up in Saratoga and, following a family tradition that dates to the American Revolution, joined the military. A member of Medical Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, he was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, after he was last seen near the Chosin Reservoir — the scene of one of the war's most decisive battles.

Approximately 2,500 U.S. and 700 South Korean soldiers comprising the 31st Regimental Combat Team were attacked by Chinese forces who had only recently joined the five-month-old civil war. Battling the Chinese and North Koreans as well as frigid conditions, the American-led forces withdrew south. By Dec. 6, the Army had evacuated roughly 1,500 service members. The remaining soldiers — more than half of the original force — had been captured or killed, or were missing in enemy territory.

Martin's name did not subsequently appear on prisoner of war lists, and no returning POWs reported seeing him among the captured. He was declared deceased as of Dec. 31, 1951. Five years later, his remains were declared "non-recoverable."

Wilson said that Martin's mother never stopped writing to the federal government, including letters to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His siblings took on the effort after she died in 1972.

Their message never changed as the decades rolled on: "Where are these men? Where are their remains? Where are their belongings? Please help us," Wilson said. " ... It's heartbreaking to read these letters from her — just the anguish of a mother: Where's my son?"

Martin's four siblings have all passed away. Wilson said her father, John Martin's brother Charles, gave the military a DNA sample in 1998 and assumed it would make a quick match. But the wait went on for years — even after remains from the battle were found near the Chosin Reservoir in September 2001 and returned to the United States.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a unit contained within the Defense Department, said Martin's remains came from that burial site. Scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used various forms of DNA analysis and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence, the agency said.

Charles Martin died in 2012, never knowing that his brother's remains were in the U.S. and only awaiting advances in technology to return him to his family.

"That perfect match," Wilson said. "It would have been nice for him to know."

Martin was officially "accounted for" on Sept. 24, the DPAA said.

Wilson said her sister, Tamaris Dolton, was the first to learn of the positive identification. "She said, 'I could have had a heart attack,'" Wilson said.

In a statement, the DPAA said it was "grateful to the government and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and looks forward to the continued fulfillment of the commitment made by President (Donald J.) Trump and Chairman Kim (Jong Un) on the return and recovery of U.S. service members in North Korea."

Martin's remains are currently in Honolulu. One of Wilson's nephews, an airman based in California, will escort the remains home for a Dec. 2 burial. He will be buried next to his parents at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Schuylerville.

Martin's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate his change in status.

The DPAA said 7,675 Americans who served during the Korean War remain unaccounted for.

Nora Santore, the daughter of Martin's sister Eleanor, said that the news did not come too late for some members of the community.

"I'm just happy he's going to be remembered," Santore said of her uncle. "There are people from Schuylerville who haven't passed, and who knew him and remember him."