After many decades, Mrs Wright, now of Dunedin, began to fear they would never be reunited, after her brother died while serving with the New Zealand Army SAS and was buried in Malaysia.
Cpl Buchanan was born in Riverton, grew up on a farm at Waimatuku, near Otautau, Southland, and later died of a heart attack while on active service in Malaysia.
In an emotional ceremony at Auckland Airport on Tuesday, 27 caskets, plus one small white coffin, emerged from the cargo hold of a chartered Air New Zealand Boeing 787, direct from Kuala Lumpur.
The men died in combat or from illness or accidents while serving with the New Zealand Defence Force in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam (1955-71).
Mrs Wright (79) travelled to the Auckland ceremony with eight other family members, and said the return of the service personnel, including her brother, was "positive".
"During the whole time I was in Auckland I never felt sorrow.
"It was not like a death. It was just like completion."
A highlight of her Auckland trip had been meeting a former member of her brother's SAS unit, who had helped carry him out of the jungle, after he fell ill.
Cpl Buchanan's remains were flown back to Dunedin on the same flight as Mrs Wright, her daughter Karen Murcott and other relatives at 7pm on Tuesday.
Mrs Wright was only 18 when she heard her brother had died on May 11, 1957 - a "surreal" outcome.
Within two years, she had named the first of her five children, Allister, after her brother, who was always in her mind.
For several decades, she dreamed they could be reunited, but hopes faded.
She was pleased her brother would at last be buried in a family plot with his parents, at the Wallacetown New Cemetery, Invercargill, after an 11am graveside service.
Cpl Buchanan was the only one of the 27 former servicemen to be returned to the South Island, the other caskets having returned to the North Island.
