Joe Dukeman and Ernie Bosia grew up a few miles from each other, but they didn’t meet until basic training at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

The world was at war and Joe Dukeman and Ernie Bosia were part the Army’s 26th Infantry known as Yankee Division. It was the fall of 1944 and the soldiers of Yankee Division were determined to drive the Nazis to defeat soon. They weren’t in France long when they saw heavy combat in Moncourt Woods.

Joe Dukeman and Ernie Bosia found themselves in a foxhole, bullets whizzing overhead. It was then that they resolved that if one of them didn’t make it, whoever survived would go to the other guy’s mother’s house after the war and tell her what happened.

They sat there in the dirt, two 21-year-old kids, and wrote down each other’s address. Joe Dukeman handed over a piece of paper with his address in East Cambridge. Ernie Bosia handed his address to Joe: 57 Governor Winthrop Road in Somerville. Joe slid the address into his pocket, picked up his rifle and the two of them began firing at the Germans.

A few days later, they were crossing a field when a burst of machine gun fire hit Ernie in the chest. By the time Joe Dukeman got to his side, Ernie Bosia was dead.

Joe Dukeman marched across France and into Germany, and he was one of the very few in Yankee Division to remain unscathed from start to finish. He somehow survived 210 days of combat. He kept Ernie Bosia’s address in his pocket the whole time.

He got back to the states in early 1946 and it was springtime, the trees on Governor Winthrop Road budding, when he found himself climbing the stairs to Anita Bosia’s house.

Joe Dukeman always said it was the hardest thing he ever did. Harder than taking another man’s life in combat. Harder than surviving war. Telling a mother how her son died was harder.

Joe Dukeman told Anita Bosia that her son didn’t suffer and that he didn’t die alone and that he was a good soldier and a good friend, and that was more comforting than he could ever imagine.

Joe Dukeman became a police officer in Malden and he never forgot his buddy Ernie Bosia. He told his children about Ernie, about the fickle nature of life, about the cruelty of war.

Ernie Bosia’s mother had her son’s body returned from France and Joe Dukeman and his son Steve were standing over Ernie’s grave some years ago when Steve Dukeman told his dad he was going to have a square in Somerville named for Ernie. But when he started asking around, he learned that only an immediate relative could make such a request.

Steve Dukeman started searching for Ernie’s family but wasn’t able to find them. Joe Dukeman died in 2013 and his son Steve always regretted not being able to get a square named for Ernie before his dad died. He felt like it was an unkept promise to his dad.

A couple years ago, Steve Dukeman was killing some time on Facebook when he came across a post from an old friend named Ernie Paicopolos. In it, Paicopolos paid tribute to the uncle he was named after, the uncle he never met because that uncle was killed in action in France in 1944.

Staring back at Steve Dukeman in that Facebook post was a photo of Ernie Bosia’s grave maker, the same grave marker Steve Dukeman and his dad were standing over when Steve vowed to get a square named after Ernie.

Turns out that Ernie Bosia’s little brother and sister are still alive.

A signpost at the corner of Temple and Governor Winthrop Road marking it as PFC Ernest J. Bosia Square was recently unveiled, just in time for Memorial Day.

It is the essence of Memorial Day. Joe Dukeman never forgot the friend he lost in war. Now Ernie Bosia will be remembered, always.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com