WORCESTER, Mass. — A dog tag a Massachusetts man lost as he stormed ashore at Anzio during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1944 has finally been returned, 70 years later.

World War II Army veteran Alfred Cabral received the weathered scrap of copper-nickel alloy during an emotional ceremony at a Worcester nursing home last weekend.

The now 88-year-old Cabral quivered and tears rose in his eyes as he received the identification tag.

An Italian man walking on a beach near Anzio found Cabral’s tag late last year. The man turned it over to a nearby cemetery where thousands of American GIs are buried.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that the then 18-year-old Cabral enlisted just days after his high school graduation. He returned home with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.