“HONOR THE DEAD BY HELPING THE LIVING”
Today, the DPAA is focused on the research, investigation,
recovery, and identification
of the approximately 34,000 (out of approximately 83,000 missing DoD personnel)
believed to be recoverable, who were lost in conflicts
from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
KHAMMOUANE, Laos --
With
1,586 service members missing in action from the Vietnam War, the Defense
POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) deploys hundreds of service members,
DoD civilians, and contractors all over the world in hopes of returning our
nation’s fallen heroes.
Recently a team of 59 personnel completed DPAA’s second Laos mission of fiscal
year 2017, covering the Central East region of Laos. From rice patties to
mountainsides,
the teams excavated thousands of square meters of land recovering important
evidence relating to missing servicemen lost during the war.
“I’m
very honored to have been part of this initiative to bring our missing home,”
said U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chris Walgenbach,
recovery non-commissioned officer. “This mission has been the most unique part
of my 13 year career in the military and I know others feel the same way.”
Every
team member plays an important role in mission success. Whether that is the
recovery non-commissioned officer setting up the sites,
or the recovery leader collecting scientific data, working together ensures
nothing is overlooked and the safety of the team remains number one priority.
Due
to the efforts of the teams, Laos representatives handed over possible remains
to the U.S. to be repatriated and welcomed back on American soil after 48 years.
Upon arrival the possible remains will be transported to DPAA’s laboratory for
examination and possible identification.
“During this mission I have worked along side some of the greatest men and women
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting,
and being chosen for the repatriation ceremony was a perfect way to end such a
great mission,” said U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Andrew Brod,
recovery non-commissioned officer. “It is truly an honor to be bringing closure
to the families of our fallen service members.”
The
hard work and continued dedication of these teams makes it possible for DPAA to
fulfill our nations promise and
provide fullest possible accounting for our missing service members to their
families and the nation.
U.S. Navy
Petty Officer 1st Class Ameil Fredeluces, edic, and U.S. Marine Corps. Staff
Sgt. Eddie Ludwig, explosive ordinance disposal technician,
remove dirt from units during excavation operations as part of the Defense
POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s mission in the Khammouane Province, Laos,
Recovery Team Three executed excavation operations in
search of two missing U.S. Air Force pilots who crashed while on a visual
reconnaissance mission during the Vietnam War over 48 years ago. DPAA’s mission
is to provide the fullest possible accounting
for our missing personnel to their families and the nation.
Members of
the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dig units during excavation operations as
part of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s
mission in the Khammouane Province, Laos. Recovery Team Three
executed excavation operations in search of two missing
U.S. Air Force pilots who crashed while on a visual reconnaissance mission
during the Vietnam War over 48 years ago. DPAA’s mission is to provide the
fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the
nation.
Jack Kenkeo,
life support investigator, shovels dirt from the screening stations during
excavation operations as part of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s
mission in the Khammouane Province, Laos. Recovery Team Three
executed excavation operations in search of two missing U.S. Air Force pilots
who crashed while on a visual reconnaissance mission during the Vietnam War over
48 years ago.
DPAA’s mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing
personnel to their families and the nation.
U.S. Army
Staff Sgt. Francis Sangiamvongse, linguist, screens soil with local villagers
during excavation operations as part of the Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency’s mission in the Khammouane Province, Laos.
Recovery Team Three executed excavation operations in search
of two missing U.S. Air Force pilots who crashed while on a visual
reconnaissance mission during the Vietnam War over 48 years ago.
DPAA’s mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing
personnel to their families and the nation.
Lynn Rakos,
scientific recovery expert, waters hard soil to help with excavation operations
as part of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s mission
in the Khammovan Province, Laos. Recovery Team three executed
excavation operations in search of two missing U.S. Air Force pilots
who crashed while on a visual reconnaissance mission during the Vietnam War over
48 years ago.
DPAA’s mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing
personnel to their families and the nation.
Making the effort to thank the troops for what they do out in the field
means everything.
With a DPAA recovery team in Quang Nam Province, two hours west of Da Nang,
Vietnam.
The UW-Madison
story involved
a group of six students and staff members who were part of a team that unearthed
a World War II U.S. fighter aircraft—
and possibly remains of its pilot—in the ground under a farm field in France
this summer.
The team used ground-penetrating radar and a photo taken by a
British reconnaissance plane two days after the May, 1944
crash of the P-47 Thunderbolt flown by 1st Lt. Frank Fazekas.
Search underway for Lakewood, Ohio airman of World War II
Search underway for Lakewood, Ohio airman of World War II.
Divers of the U.S. Defense
POW/MIA
Accounting Agency and Civil Defense of Grado, Italy,
prepare for an exploratory dive on the sunken B-24 bomber.
This B-24 Liberator is the same type of airplane that
Lakewood, Ohio airman Thomas McGraw was flying in when it was shot down and
crashed off the coast of Italy during World War II.
A Missing Air Crew Report details the last flight of the B-24 and nose gunner
Thomas McGraw of Lakewood, Ohio.
B-24 located in Adriatic; Crewmanis bones sought Ught Lakewood Manis remains
crewman Omber crew,am2-2k-28 bold Header from A1.
A skull fragment was recovered at the site of a wrecked B-24 bomber
off the coast of Italy that may contain the remains of
Thomas McGraw,
of Lakewood, Ohio.
An underwater view of the crash site of a B-24 off Grado, Italy.
FINDING ENSIGN HAROLD P. DeMOSS IN THE MUCK AND MIRE
“Seeing
those photos was so overwhelming that I cried like a baby”
said DeMoss’ niece, Judy Ivey. “To see this actually taking place
is not anything I ever really expected.”
Anine-person military team
has been digging up mud four days a week
in the Koolau range in search of a missing World War II pilot whose
fighter crashed in cloud cover during a night training flight.
A bucket-and-pulley system
was set up to move excavated
material to a spot where it can be bundled in tarps for
helicopter transport to Wheeler Army Airfield.
NOTE: The Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery said in a 1948 letter
to the family that “an attempt to recover the remains was
considered impracticable” because the site was 7 miles
from a traveled highway in the mountains.
On Feb. 25, 1944, Duran wasn’t supposed to be on the doomed B-24H
Liberator, nicknamed “Knock it Off.”
Normally a nose turret gunner, Duran was the substitute tail turret gunner on
the flight, replacing the usual tail gunner who had frostbite.
The earth by the headstone next to the church in this tiny mountain village was full of rocks.
Two days of digging under a hot sun had yielded buckets of
gravel, stones the size of men’s fists and many piles of dirt – but no bones.
After 73 years, Sgt. Alfonso O. Duran was still missing.
The family feels a sense of closure regardless of the outcome,
Duran said.
“What a difference it would have made to my father and to my aunt,”
she said, “to know he had died and somebody had buried him and tended the
grave.”
Members of
the recovery team attach a POW flag to the wreckage of the
Tulsamerican, a B-24 Liberator piloted by, Lt. Eugene P. Ford, a Derry Township,
Pa. native,
when it crashed into the Adriatic Sea in 1944.
FIELD OPERATIONS IN LAOS AND CAMBODIA, JANUARY/FEBRUARY, 2020
US Ambassador to
Cambodia Patrick Murphy,
prepares to screen dirt during a DPAA recovery mission in Ratanakiri Province,
Cambodia, February 1, 2020.
Mr. Alexander
Garcia-Putnam, right, a senior recovery expert assigned to DPAA,
speaks to US service members and Lao officials during a joint field activity
(JFA) in Khammouan Province, Laos, February 2, 2020
SG Carter Caraker,
USA, a DPAA supply non-commissioned officer,
passes buckets to local workers during a JFA in Khammouan Province, Laos,
February 10, 2020.
During the JFA, a group of more than 70 personnel, assigned to DPAA and
augmented from military units around the globe,
worked together to help fulfill our nation's promise to provide the fullest
possible accounting of our missing personnel.
2021 Recoveries
Underwater Recovery Mission - Vietnam:
U.S. Coast Guard underwater recovery mission in
Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, May 27 2021.
Vietnam Recovery Mission:
U.S. Army DPAA recovery team member, swings a pick axe to loosen dirt during
a recovery mission in Quang Binh province, Vietnam, July 3, 2021.
Vietnam Repatriation Ceremony:
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Detachment 2 and the Vietnam Office for
Seeking
Missing Persons (VNOSMP) held the 155th Repatriation
Ceremony on 9 July 2021 at Gia Lam Airport outside Hanoi, Vietnam.
Repatriation Ceremony – Laos:
Detachment Three-Laos, pause for a photo during the signing of remains turnover
documents
at a Repatriation Ceremony June 22, 2021 in Vientiane, Laos.
Honorable Carry from Laos:
DPAA members conducted an Honorable Carry ceremony on Joint Base Pearl Harbor
Hickam, June 23, 2021.
The remains were recently repatriated to the U.S. during a ceremony in
Vientiane, Laos.
USS Arizona was
a Pennsylvania-class battleship built
for and by the United
States Navy in
the mid-1910s. Named in honor of the 48th
state's
recent admission into the union, the ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class
of "super-dreadnought"
battleships. Although commissioned in
1916, the ship remained stateside during World
War I.
Shortly after the end of the war, Arizona was
one of a number of American ships that briefly escorted President Woodrow
Wilson to
the Paris
Peace Conference.
The ship was sent to Turkey in 1919 at the beginning of the Greco-Turkish
War to
represent American interests for several months. Several years later, she was
transferred to the Pacific
Fleet and
remained there for the rest of her career.
Aside from a comprehensive modernization in 1929–31, Arizona was
regularly used for training exercises between the wars, including the annual Fleet
Problems
(training exercises). When an earthquake struck
Long Beach, California,
in 1933, Arizona's
crew provided aid to the survivors. Two years later, the ship was featured in a Jimmy
Cagney film, Here
Comes the Navy,
about the romantic troubles of a sailor. In April 1940, she and the rest of the
Pacific Fleet were transferred from California to Pearl
Harbor,
Hawaii, as a deterrent to Japanese
imperialism.
During the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor on
7 December 1941, Arizona was
bombed. After a bomb detonated in a powder magazine, the battleship exploded
violently and sank, killing 1,177 officers and crewmen. Unlike many of the other
ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona was
irreparably damaged by the force of the magazine explosion, though the Navy
removed parts of the ship for reuse. The wreck still
lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial,
dedicated on 30 May 1962 to all those who died during the attack, straddles the
ship's hull.
A number of other boats were sunk in the attack, but later
recovered and repaired.
The USS California (BB-44)
lost 100 crew members that morning, after the ship suffered extensive flooding
damage when hit by two torpedoes on the port side.
Both torpedoes detonated below the armor belt causing virtually identical damage
each time.
A 250 kg bomb also entered the starboard upper deck level, which passed through
the main deck and exploded on the armored second deck,
setting off an anti-aircraft ammunition magazine and killing about 50 men.
After three days of flooding, the California settled
into the mud with only her superstructure remaining above the surface.
She was later re-floated and dry-docked at Pearl Harbor for repairs. USS California served
many missions throughout the war,
and was eventually decommissioned in February, 1947.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese bombs fell and
torpedoes slashed through the waters of Pearl Harbor,
causing a devastating amount of damage to the vessels lined up in Battleship Row
in in the dry docks nearby.
Each of the seven battleships moored there suffered some degree of damage, some
far worse than others.
The USS Arizona (BB-39)
and the USS Oklahoma (BB-37)
were completely destroyed. Though the Maryland (BB-46)
was believed by Japan to also have been sunk, she ultimately survived and became
one of the first ships to return to the war.
During the attack on Pearl Harbor, ships like the USS Cassin (DD-372),
a Mahan-class
destroyer, suffered what was originally thought to be fatal damage.
While she was extensively damaged during the attack, she was resurrected and
went on to return to service during the remainder of World War II.
The sunken battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48) at Pearl Harbor after her fires
were out, possibly on 8 December 1941.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard. A Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplane (marked
“4-O-3”) is upside down on West Virginia’s main deck.
A second OS2U is partially burned out atop the Turret No. 3 catapult.
In the aftermath of the attacks on Pearl Harbor during World War Two stories emerged of sailors who were trapped in the sunken battleships, some even survived for weeks.
Those who were trapped underwater banged continuously on the side of the ship so
that anyone would hear them and come to their rescue.
When the noises were first heard many thought it was just loose wreckage or part
of the clean-up operation for the destroyed harbor.
However the day after the attack, crewmen realized that there was an eerie banging noise coming from the forward hull of the USS West Virginia, which had sunk in the harbor.
t didn’t take long for the crew and Marines based at the harbor to realize that
there was nothing they could do. They could not get to these trapped sailors in
time.
Months later rescue and salvage men who raised the USS West Virginia found the
bodies of three men who had found an airlock in a storeroom but had eventually
run out of air.
Survivors say that no one wanted to go on guard duty anywhere near the USS West
Virginia since they would hear the banging of trapped survivors all night long,
but with nothing that could be done.
When salvage crews raised the battleship West Virginia six months after the
Pearl Harbor attacks,
they found the bodies of three sailors huddled in an airtight storeroom —
and a calendar on which 16 days had been crossed off in
red pencil.
The USS Oklahoma was on Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. That was the morning that the Japanese Empire attacked the United States by surprise.
The Japanese
used dive–bombers, fighter–bombers, and torpedo planes to sink nine ships,
including five battleships, and severely damage 21 ships.
There were 2,402 US deaths from the attack. 1,177 of
those deaths were from the USS Arizona,
while 429 of the deaths were from the USS Oklahoma.
The crew of the USS Oklahoma did everything they could to fight back. In the first ten minutes of the battle, though, eight torpedoes hit the Oklahoma, and she began to capsize. A ninth torpedo would hit her as she sunk in the mud. 14 Marines, and 415 sailors would give their lives. 32 men were cut out through the hull while the others were beneath the waterline. Banging could be heard for over 3 days and then there was silence.
After the battle, the Navy decided that they could not salvage the Oklahoma due to how much damage she had received. The difficult savage job began in March 1943, and Oklahoma entered dry dock 28 December. Decommissioning September 1, 1944, Oklahoma was stripped of guns and superstructure, and sold December 5, 1946 to Moore Drydock Co., Oakland, Calif. Oklahoma parted her tow line and sank May 17, 1947. 540 miles out, bound from Pearl Harbor to San Francisco. Today, there is a memorial to the USS Oklahoma and the 429 sailors and marines lost on December 7, 1941, located on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The minelayer Oglala technically
didn't suffer a hit on December 7, but a torpedo passed under it and hit the USS
Helena.
The blast from that crippled the old Oglala which
had been built as a civilian vessel in 1906.
The crewmembers took their guns to the Navy Yard Dock and set them up to provide
more defenses.
They also set up a first aid station that saved the lives of West Virginia
crewmembers.
The ship suffered horribly, eventually capsizing and sinking
until just a few feet of the ship's starboard side remained above water.
It was declared lost, and the Navy even considered blowing it up with dynamite
to clear the dock it had sunk next to.
But the decision was made that it could destroy the dock, so the Navy had to
refloat it. At that point, it made sense to dry dock and repair it.
None of the crew of Oglala were killed in the attack, although three received injuries.
Sean Patterson, Armed Forces Medical Examiner System Department
of Defense DNA Quality Management Section DNA Analyst,
replaces U. S. Navy Fireman 1st Class Billy James Johnson's picture background,
signifying him as an identified service member who was previously missing in
action.
Johnson marks the 200th service member to be identified following the December
7, 1941 Pearl Harbor
attack where 429 U.S. Sailors and Marines were killed on the USS Oklahoma
(BB-37).
A
series of large posters hang in the conference room of the Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency laboratory located at Offutt Air Base, Nebraska.
The heading on each of the posters states “USS OKLAHOMA.” Underneath the
headings are neat rows of printed rectangular frames.
Each one represents a person who was unaccounted for when the USS Oklahoma was
sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Thanks
to the work of Dr. Brown’s team, the remains of 200 previously unknown crewmen
from the USS Oklahoma
have now been returned to their families for proper burial and their families
have those long-awaited answers.
The story of the USS Oklahoma’s lost crewmen is
an evolving history lesson that began on what
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called
“a date that will live in infamy.”
LIST OF USS OKLAHOMA IDENTIFICATIONS FROM MICHIGAN:
(Please note that in some USS Oklahoma identifications,
the primary next of kin has yet to be notified,
and therefore the names will not be released at this time.)
Seaman Second Class Warren P. Hickok of Kalamazoo, Mich.
Staff Sgt. Joseph M. King, of Detroit, Mich.
Fireman Third Class Gerald G. Lehman, of Hancock, Mich.
Machinist Mate First Class Fred M. Jones, 30 of Port Huron, Michigan
Navy Fireman 2nd Class Lowell E. Valley, 19, of Ontonagon, Michigan,
Navy Seaman 1st Class Robert W. Headington, 19, Bay City, Michigan
Navy Seaman 2nd Class John C. Auld, 23, Grosse Park, Michigan,
Navy Ensign William M. Finnegan, 44, of Bessemer, Michigan,
Navy Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Fred M. Jones, 31, of Otter Lake, Michigan,
Navy Seaman 1st Class Robert W. Headington, 19, of Bay City, Michigan,
Navy Seaman 1st Class Edward Wasielewski, Plymouth, MI
U.S. Naval Reserve Ensign Frances
C. Flaherty, 22, of
Navy Seaman 1st Class Joe R. Nightingale, 20, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Navy Seaman 1st Class Edward Wasielewski, 21, of Detroit,
U.S. Naval Reserve Ensign Francis C. Flaherty, 22, of Charlotte, Michigan,
Navy Seaman 2nd Class Raymond D. Boynton, 19, Grand Rapids, MI
Navy Seaman 1st Class Wilbur F. Ballance, 20, Paw Paw, Michigan
It is through this effort that the accounting community
has been able to honor the sacrifices of the USS Oklahoma Sailors and Marines
and their families who pushed for the fullest possible accounting of their loved
ones.
Ford Island
is seen in this aerial view during the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor December
7, 1941 in Hawaii.
(The photo was taken from a Japanese plane.)
Remember
the fallen: In all, 429 people on board the
battleship were killed in the attack.
Only 35 were identified in the years immediately after.
Battleship
USS Oklahoma unturned hull at the bottom of Pearl Harbor
after the devastating Japanese bombing attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
Breakdown by War - Still Unaccounted for/Unreturned Veterans:
WW I 3,343
WW II 72,784
Korea 7,676
Vietnam 1,584
Cold War 126
Gulf/Other 6
Total 85,519
*As of June 2021
Service Personnel Not Recovered Following
WWII
from MICHIGAN - 2445
Service Personnel Not Recovered Following
Korea
from MICHIGAN - 331
Service Personnel Not Recovered Following
Cold War
from MICHIGAN - 4
Service Personnel Not Recovered Following
Viet Nam
from MICHIGAN - 48
RECENTLY
FOUND
HEROES in 2022
U.S. Army Cpl. Leo J. Barlosky, 24,
In late 1941, Barlosky was a member of the 7th Chemical Company,
Aviation, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December.
Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April
9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps.
Barlosky was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then
held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp
during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Barlosky
died July 27, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the
local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225.
U.S. Army Cpl. Delbert L. White, 20, Wapello County, Iowa who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, White was a member of D Company, 2nd Engineer
(Combat) Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division.
On Dec. 1, White and many other 2nd ID Soldiers were captured by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces as they attempted to block the CPVF and allow the rest of 2nd ID to escape south.
In August 1953, the CPVF sent a list to United Nations Command stating White died in March 1951 as a prisoner of war at POW Camp #1.
However, in September 1953, two returning American POWs said he died in February 1951 at POW Camp #5.
Despite conflicting reports, the Army determined March 18, 1951 was the latest White could have been alive and declared that his date of death.
Delbert L White is memorialized at Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
U.S. Army Pfc. Clinton E. Smith, Jr., 19, Nueces County, Texas killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In January 1945, Smith was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion,
157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.
The unit was engaged with German forces during the Battle of Reipertswiller in France and was surrounded, along with four other companies.
Smith was killed in an artillery strike on Jan. 14, but his body could not be recovered because of the fighting.
U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Paul W. Schmidt, 20, New York killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In March 1945, Schmidt was assigned to 161st Tactical
Reconnaissance Squadron, 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 8th Air Force.
His squadron was engaged with attacking German lines of transportation along the Rhine River. On March 23, Schmidt was attacking an enemy train near Sendenhorst, Germany, in his F-6D Mustang fighter.
His wingman reported he last saw Schmidt attacking the train, but he was never seen or heard from again.
Schmidt was declared missing in action, but the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war.
On March 24, 1946, with no evidence Schmidt survived the fighting, the War Department issued a presumptive finding of death.
Paul W Schmidt is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing Lorraine American Cemetery St. Avold, France.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. James Rotunno, 27, New York killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In January 1945, Rotunno was assigned to Company K, 3rd
Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.
The unit was engaged with German forces during the Battle of Reipertswiller in France and was surrounded, along with four other companies.
The surrounded companies were given the order to attempt a break-out on Jan. 20, but only two men made it through German lines.
The rest were either captured or killed. Rotunno was among those killed in the aftermath on Jan. 21, but his body could not be recovered because of the fighting.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. George E. Davies, 27, Multnomah County, Oregon killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Davies was assigned to the 345th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Davies was the assistant engineer was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
George E Davies is buried or memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.
U.S. Army Pfc. Roy J. Searle, 22, Providence County, Rhode Island killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In December 1944, Searle was assigned to Company D, 1st
Battalion, 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division.
His unit crossed the Saar River on Dec. 6 and attempted for the next two days to capture and hold two heavily defended towns Pachtener Kopfe and Rehlingen.
Searle was mortally wounded during enemy engagement on Dec. 9, and was reported to have died of his wounds near Rehlingen, Germany.
Roy J Searle is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France.
U.S. Army Pvt. J.C. Brooks, 19, Kentucky who was killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Brooks was a member of Company I, 39th
Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division.
His unit was part of Operation HUSKY, the Allied effort from July 10 to Aug. 17 to capture Sicily from Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italian regime.
Brooks was killed during the Battle of Troina on Aug. 1 while leading an advance against German forces as first scout.
He was unable to be recovered because of the fighting.
J C Brooks is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy.
U.S. Army Pvt. James R. Tash, 20, Missouri who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Tash was a member of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 31st
Infantry Regiment, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in
December.
Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan
peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps.
Tash was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then
held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp
during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical
records, Tash died July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased
prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312.
James R Tash is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing Manila American Cemetery Manila, Philippines.
September 23
U.S. Army Cpl. Joseph J. Puopolo, 19, of
East Boston, Massachusetts, who died as a prisoner of war during the
Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, Puopolo was a member of C Battery, 38th Field
Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Infantry Division Artillery, 8th U.S. Army. He
was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, after his unit attempted to
withdraw from Kunu-ri, North Korea, on Nov. 30, following the Battle of
Ch’ongch’on.
In 1953, four POWs who returned during Operation
Big Switch reported Puopolo had been a prisoner of war and died in February 1951
at Prisoner of War Camp #5.
In the late summer and fall of 1954, during Operation Glory,
North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered from Pyoktong, also known as
Prisoner of War Camp #5, to the United Nations Command. None were associated
with Puopolo.
One set of remains disinterred from Camp #5 returned during
Operation Glory was designated Unknown X-14430 and buried at the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War
Unknowns from the Punchbowl. In December 2019, the DPAA disinterred Unknown
X-14430 as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Plan and sent the
remains to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for
analysis.
Puopolo’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments
Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who
are still missing from the Korean War.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Puopolo will be buried in Malden, Massachusetts, at a date yet to
be determined.
September 23
U.S. Army Pfc. Adelaido M. Solis, 19, of
Inez, Texas, who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was
accounted for.
In late 1950, Solis was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th
Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on
Dec. 1, 1950, after his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri, North Korea, following
the Battle of Ch’ongch’on.
In 1953, a POW returned during Operation Big
Switch reported Solis had been a prisoner of war and died in April 1951 at
Prisoner of War Camp #5.
In the late summer and fall of 1954, during Operation Glory,
North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered from Pyoktong, also known as
Prisoner of War Camp #5, to the United Nations Command. However, Solis’s name
did not appear on any of the transfer rosters and the Central Identification
Unit in Kokura, Japan, did not associate any repatriated remains with him. Solis
was determined to be non-recoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War
Unknowns from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the
Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In November 2019, the DPAA disinterred Unknown X-14719,
a set of remains returned during Operation Glory, as part of Phase Two of the
Korean War Disinterment Plan and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory at
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
Solis’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments
Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the
Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean
War.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Solis will be buried in Bloomington, Texas, on a date yet to be
determined.
U.S. Army Sgt. Garland W. Collier, 25,
of Coleman, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the fall of 1944, Collier was assigned to Headquarters Co.,
3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He
was reported killed in action during Operation MARKET GARDEN when his unit was
attacked by German forces near Opheusden, The Netherlands. His body was unable
to be recovered.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
conducted several searches of the area, but by 1950, none of the remains found
around Opheusden could be identified as Collier. He was declared non-recoverable
in November 1950.
In 2015, DPAA historians began working on a comprehensive
research and recovery project focused on those missing from Operation MARKET
GARDEN. During that work, they analyzed information about X-3324 Neuville, an
unknown set of remains recovered from the civilian cemetery in Opheusden in 1946
and buried in what is today known as Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, an
American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium.
Following a multidisciplinary analysis from DPAA historians,
forensic anthropologists, and odontologists, it was determined X-3324 could
possibly be Collier. These remains were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to
the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and
identification.
Collier’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the
Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Margarten, Netherlands, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he
has been accounted for.
Collier will be buried Nov. 12, 2022, in his hometown.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Roy
Carney, 20, of Electra, Texas, killed during World War II, was
accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Carney was assigned to the 345th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On
Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Carney was serving as a
gunner crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL
WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at
Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following
the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns
in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti,
Prahova, Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and
those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle
American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated
with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were
sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination
and identification.
Carney’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the
Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Carney will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia, at a date yet to be determined.
September 22
U.S. Army Pfc. Ithiel E. Whatley, 19, Escambia County, Florida who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1950, Whatley was a member of M Company, 3rd
Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
He was reported missing in action on July 12 after this unit was engaged in a fighting withdrawal south of Chochi’won, South Korea, towards the Kum River.
While it is possible Whatley was captured, there was no record or eyewitness accounts of him being held as a prisoner of war, and no recovered remains were ever identified as him.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Jan. 4, 1954 and declared Whatley non-recoverable in January 1956.
Ithiel E Whatley is memorialized at Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
U.S. Army Cpl. Joseph H. Gunnoe, 21, Kanawha County, West Virginia killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1944, Gunnoe was assigned to Company G, 112th
Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division.
His unit was driven from Vossenack, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, by a German attack on Nov. 6, and this is likely when Gunnoe was killed, but he was not reported missing until Nov. 9.
His body unable to be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war.
He was declared killed in action after the war.
Joseph Harding Gunnoe is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands.
U.S. Army Pfc. Mark P. Wilson, 20, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1944, Wilson was assigned to Company A, 1st
Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division.
His battalion had been tasked with holding the town of Kommerscheidt, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported missing in action on Nov. 8.
His body unable to be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war.
He was declared killed in action after the war.
U.S. Army Sgt. Thaddeus S. Matuszak, 31, Wisconsin killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In September 1944, Matuszak was assigned to Company K, 11th
Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division. They were part of Lt. Gen. George S.
Patton’s Third Army and had been fighting across France that summer before being
stopped by fierce German opposition at the Moselle River near Dornot.
On the morning of Sept. 8, Matuszak’s unit was part of a larger force ordered to cross the river and take up a position in the woods on the east side. They dug their defensive positions in a curved line at the edge of the forest they called Horseshoe Woods.
The force held their position against a relentless German attack, taking heavy losses, until Sept. 10, when another crossing of the Moselle was made. Only then were they allowed to retreat.
That night and into the morning of Sept. 11 most of the Soldiers were able to retreat across the river, though some officers stayed behind to search the woods for the wounded or missing before recrossing the river.
Matuszak was among the Soldiers reported missing that night.
His body was unable to be recovered because of the fighting and German presence on east side of the river.
Thaddeus S Matuszak is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France.
U.S. Army Pfc. Clinton P. Koloski, 21, Jackson County, Wisconsin killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In January 1945, Koloski was assigned to Company A, 36th Engineer
Combat Regiment. On Jan. 14, the unit was on patrol near Obermuhlthal, France,
when it encountered German soldiers in fortified positions.
At some point during the fighting, Koloski was killed, but historical records do not indicate exactly where.
Due to the fighting, his body was unable to be immediately recovered.
Navy Seaman 2nd Class Pete Turk, 20, of
Scammon, Kansas, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Turk was assigned to the battleship USS
California, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was
attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS California sustained multiple torpedo and
bomb hits, which caused it catch fire and slowly flood. The attack on the ship
resulted in the deaths of 104 crewmen, including Turk.
From December 1941 to April 1942, Navy personnel recovered the
remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and
Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen
U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves
Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the
two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at
Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the
identifications of 39 men from the USS California at that time. The AGRS
subsequently buried the unidentified remains at the National Memorial Cemetery
of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In October 1949, a military board
classified the 25 Unknowns who could not be identified as non-recoverable,
including Turk.
In 2018, DPAA personnel exhumed the 25 USS California Unknowns
from the Punchbowl for analysis.
Turk’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Turk will be buried Oct. 17, 2022, in Manhattan, Kansas.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Ralph D. Kolb, 19, Desha County, Arkansas killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Kolb was assigned to the 343rd Bombardment
Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Kolb was the assistant radio operator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Ralph D Kolb is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Ralph E. Richardson, Jr., 21, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Richardson was assigned to the 329th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Richardson was the radio operator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Theodore F. Scarborough, 21, Brooklyn, Mississippi killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Scarborough was assigned to the 345th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Scarborough was the bombardier was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Moses F.
Tate, 23, of Seneca, Kansas, killed during World War II, was
accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Tate was assigned to the 415th Bombardment
Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1,
1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Tate was serving as a gunner was hit
by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest
bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of
Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The
remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section
of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and
those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle
American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated
with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were
sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination
and identification.
Tate’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the
Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Impruneta, Italy,
along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he
has been accounted for.
Tate will be buried Oct. 27, 2022, in Springfield, Missouri.
September 20
U.S. Army Cpl. Clark E. Worline, 20, who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In the fall of 1950, Worline was a member of C Company, 2nd
Chemical Mortar Battalion, 8th U.S. Army.
He was reported missing in action on Nov. 26 after fighting against the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces near Sinjang, North Korea.
While it is possible Worline was captured, there was no record or
eyewitness accounts of him being held as a prisoner of war, though it was not
unusual for prisoners
who died to be unknown to other captives.
Tanker
U.S. Army Cpl. Joe A. Vinyard, 23, Loudon, Tennessee killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In December 1944, Vinyard was assigned to Company A, 774th Tank
Battalion, as a crewmember on an M4 Sherman tank.
His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Gey, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when his tank was hit by an 88-mm round. The crew bailed out of the tank, but when they regrouped a few minutes later, Vinyard was missing. One of the other crewmen reported seeing Vinyard exit the tank, but, even after several days, no one could find him.
Two later inspections of the destroyed tank reported finding no remains inside.
The Germans never reported Vinyard as a prisoner of war.
The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death in April 1946.
Missing in Action and memorialized at Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands.
Army Pfc. John L. Ferguson, 20, of
Flanagan, Illinois, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war
during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Ferguson was a member of the 28th Materiel
Squadron, U.S. Army Air Forces, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine
Islands in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the
Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members
were captured and interned at POW camps. Ferguson was among those reported
captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then
held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp
during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical
records, Ferguson died Dec. 10, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased
prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 917.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS)
personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the
remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS
examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Five of the sets of remains
from Common Grave 917 were identified, but the rest were declared
unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American
Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) on Feb. 15 and 16, 1950, as Unknowns.
In March 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 917 were
disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam,
Hawaii, for analysis.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Ferguson’s grave was
meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments
Commission (ABMC).
Ferguson will be buried Oct. 1, 2022, in Gridley, Illinois.
U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. James M. Howie, 24, Randolph County, Illinois killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Howie was assigned to the 345th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Howie was a radio operator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
James M Howie is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.
U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Melvin B. Meyer, 25, Woodford County, Illinois killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In May 1944, Meyer was assigned to the 569th Bombardment
Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 13th Bombardment Wing, 3rd Air
Division, 8th Air Force.
He was the bombardier of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during a huge bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany, on May 29. Enemy fighters attacked the bomber’s formation roughly 28 miles northeast Leipzig, and the plane was shot down.
Six of the 10 crew members were able to escape the plane before it crashed near Horst, while the rest, including Meyer, were killed.
Bodies recovered from the crash were believed to have been buried in a local cemetery.
After the war ended, there was no evidence of Meyer being a prisoner of war or having survived, so a Finding of Death was issued a year after the crash.
Melvin Herman Meyer is buried or memorialized at American War Cemetery Margraten, Plot H, Row 11, Grave 6.
U.S. Army Pvt. Robert R. Gruwell, 20, Los Angeles County, California killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1944, Gruwell was assigned to Company G, 3rd
Battalion, 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team. On Aug. 15, Gruwell’s unit
was part of Operation DRAGOON, the invasion of southern France to secure ports
along France’s Mediterranean coast.
The 517th PIR was one of a very few parachute infantry regiments during WWII that were “independent,” meaning they were not attached to an airborne division. Near the end of WWII the 517th PIR became attached to the 13th Airborne Division.
Specifically, their orders were to prevent German troops from moving to the invasion beaches to fight back against the sea landings and to secure the area around LeMuy.
Gruwell’s unit landed near Callian early in the morning, and he went missing sometime that day between Callian and LeMuy.
He was never reported as a prisoner of war and no recovered remains were ever identified as him.
On May 15, 1945, Gruwell’s status was changed to killed in action.
Robert R Gruwell is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Brittany American Cemetery, St. James, France.
U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Carl D. Nesbitt, 23, Allen County, Ohio killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In May 1944, Nesbitt was assigned to the 569th Bombardment
Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 13th Bombardment Wing, 3rd Air
Division, 8th Air Force.
He was the pilot of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during a huge bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany, on May 29. Enemy fighters attacked the bomber’s formation roughly 28 miles northeast Leipzig, and the plane was shot down.
Six of the 10 crew members were able to escape the plane before it crashed near Horst, while the rest, including Nesbitt, were killed.
Bodies recovered from the crash were believed to have been buried in a local cemetery.
After the war ended, there was no evidence of Nesbitt being a prisoner of war or having survived, so a Finding of Death was issued a year after the crash.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Francis V. Montemurro, 25, New York County, New York killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Montemurro was assigned to the 345th
Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Montemurro was serving as the navigator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Francis V Montemurro is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing North Africa American Cemetery Carthage, Tunisia.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne L. Dyer, 22, Kiowa County, Oklahoma killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In May 1944, Dyer was assigned to the 569th Bombardment Squadron,
390th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 13th Bombardment Wing, 3rd Air Division, 8th
Air Force.
He was the navigator of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during a huge bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany, on May 29. Enemy fighters attacked the bomber’s formation roughly 28 miles northeast Leipzig, and the plane was shot down.
Six of the 10 crew members were able to escape the plane before it crashed near Horst, while the rest, including Dyer, were killed.
Bodies recovered from the crash were believed to have been buried in a local cemetery.
After the war ended, there was no evidence of Dyer being a prisoner of war or having survived, so a Finding of Death was issued a year after the crash.
Wayne L Dyer is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, Henri-Chapelle, Belgium.
U.S. Army Cpl. Franklin H. Bennett, 20, Montana who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Bennett was a member of the 54th Signal Maintenance
Company, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December.
Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan
peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps.
Bennett was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then
held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp
during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Bennett
died July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the
local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312.
to mark that the person now rests in a known gravesite.
September 19
U.S. Army Pfc. Melvin J. Little Bear,
21, of Standing Rock, South Dakota, killed during the Korean War, was
accounted for.
In 1951, Little Bear was a member of A Battery, 15th Field
Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on
Feb. 13 after his unit was attacked by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces and
conducted a two-day withdrawal from Changbong-ni, South Korea, to Wonju. He had
been captured and was a prisoner of war at POW Camp No. 1 in North Korea.
Repatriated POWs reports and information from Chinese and North Korean forces
said he died in captivity on or about July 21, 1951.
During Operation GLORY in the fall of 1954, remains from
Changsong, North Korea, where POW Camp No. 1 was located, were returned to
United Nations Command, but could not be identified. The remains, designated
X-14251 Operaion GLORY, were buried Feb. 16, 1956, at the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In November 2019, during Phase 2 of DPAA’s Korean War
Disinterment Project, X-14251 was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the
planned exhumation of 23 Operation GLORY burials originating from the Changsong
area, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam,
Hawaii for analysis.
Little Bear’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at
the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Little Bear will be buried Sept. 30, 2022, in McLaughlin, South
Dakota.
August 31
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Merritt L. Wynn, 31, Marion County, Illinois killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, Wynn was a member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th
Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.
He was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, while during fighting with the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces east of Unsan, North Korea.
Wynn was awarded the Silver Star for his leadership and bravery that day.
Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered, and there is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.
Wynn was declared nonrecoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
Merritt L Wynn is buried or memorialized at Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
Pilot
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. John F. Minogue, 24, Orange County, California killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Minogue was assigned to the 328th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Minogue was the co-pilot was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Howard L. Dickson, 30, Montgomery County, Ohio killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Dickson was assigned to the 328th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Dickson was a gunner and instructor was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
August 31
U.S. Army Sgt. Alfred H. Sidney, 23, Strafford County, New Hampshire who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In May 1951, Sidney was a member of H Company, 2nd Battalion,
23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
He was reported missing in action on May 18, after his unit was attacked near Hangye, South Korea.
In 1953, a POW who returned during Operation Little Switch reported Sidney had been a prisoner of war and died in July 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #1.
Alfred H Sidney is buried or memorialized at Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
U.S. Army Pfc. Donald Hofman, 19, of
Grand Rapids, Michigan, killed during World War II, was accounted for
July 8, 2022.
In January 1945, Hofman was assigned to Headquarters Company, 3rd
Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. Elements of the unit
were supporting five companies attempting to secure terrain near Reipertswiller,
France, when they were surrounded by German forces while being pounded by
artillery and mortar fire. The surrounded companies were given the order to
attempt a break-out on Jan. 20, but only two men made it through German lines.
The rest were either captured or killed. Hofman was among those killed, but his
body could not be recovered because of the fighting.
Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in
the European Theater, searched the area around Reipertswiller, finding 37
unidentified sets of American remains, but it was unable to identify any of them
as Hofman.
He was declared non-recoverable on May 22, 1951.
DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into
Soldiers missing from combat around Reipertswiller, and found that Unknown
X-6376 Neuville, buried at Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle
Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, could be associated
with Hofman. X-6376 was disinterred in July 2021 and transferred to the DPAA
Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.
Hofman’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal
American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Dinozé,
France, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Hofman will be buried in Byron Center, Michigan, at a date yet to
be determined.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Donald
R. Duchene, 19, of St. Paul, Minnesota, killed during World War II,
was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Duchene was assigned to the 344th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On
Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Duchene was serving as the
tail gunner was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation
TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at
Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following
the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the
Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova,
Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and
those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle
American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated
with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were
sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination
and identification.
Duchene’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the
Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Duchene will be buried in Minneapolis on a date yet to be
determined.
Army Pfc. Worley D. Jacks, 21, of
Rutland, Ohio, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In March 1945, Jacks was assigned to Company L, 232nd Infantry
Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division. His unit was engaged in battle with German
forces near Lichtenberg, France, when he was wounded and reported missing in
action on March 7. His body unable to be recovered, and the Germans never
reported him as a prisoner of war. On Oct. 4, 1945, the War Department declared
Jacks killed in action.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration
Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American
personnel in Europe. Unable to find any remains, they declared Jacks
non-recoverable. However, in January 1951, a German War Graves Commission found
a set of remains wearing Jacks’ ID tags while they were disinterring German
soldiers from a military cemetery near Ludwigswinkel, Germany, 14 miles to the
northeast of Lichtenberg. AGRC recovered the remains, designated X-8515 Neuville,
but found discrepancies between the remains and Jacks’ records and couldn’t
understand how it would have been possible for Jacks’ remains to end up 14 miles
away from where he went missing. Jacks was declared non-recoverable in October
1951 and X-8515 was buried at what is today Brittany American Cemetery, an
American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. James, Normandy, France.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Lichtenberg
area, a DPAA historian reviewed the X-8515 case and determined German medics had
recovered Jacks near Lichtenberg and moved him to the nearest German field
hospital, which was in Ludwigswinkel, where he died. This information, along
with a scientific re-evaluation of X-8515’s height, weight, and age estimates,
made Jacks the only historical candidate for association with X-8515. X-8515 was
disinterred in August 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force
Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Jacks’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal
American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Dinozé,
France, along with the others still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Jacks will be buried in Marion, Ohio, on a date yet to be
determined.
Pilot
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. David M.
Lewis, 20, of Dallas, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Lewis was assigned to the 345th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On
Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Lewis was serving as a pilot
crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the
largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north
of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were
buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of
Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and
those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle
American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated
with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were
sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination
and identification.
Lewis’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the
Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments
Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Lewis will be buried in Saltillo, Texas, on a date yet to be
determined.
U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. Joseph E. Lescaut, 21, Middlesex County, Massachusetts who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Lescaut was a member of the 16th Bombardment
Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine
Islands in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the
Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps. Lescaut was among those reported captured when U.S.
forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp.
More than 2,500
POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical
records, Lescaut died July 26, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased
prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225.
U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Harold Kretzer, 32, Freeborn County, Minnesota killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Kretzer was assigned to the 66th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Kretzer was a gunner-engineer was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Harold Kretzer is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, England.
U.S. Army Capt. Donald H. Froemke, 33,
Yakima county, Washington
killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the fall of 1944, Froemke was assigned to Company B, 326th
Airborne Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division.
He was reported killed in action on Oct. 5 during Operation MARKET GARDEN when his unit was attacked by German forces near Opheusden, The Netherlands.
Due to the fighting, his body was unable to be recovered.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
conducted several searches of the area.
In March 1946, the visited a Dutch civilian cemetery to recover several sets of American remains buried there. A cross with Froemke’s name marked one of the graves. Within the grave was a set of remains wearing U.S. Army uniform and equipment. However, there was no other personal effects or ID tags.
The remains were designated Unknown X-3325 Neuville, but were later declared to be Froemke based on four pieces of circumstantial evidence.
These remains were sent to Yakima, Washington, to be buried per Froemke’s family’s wishes.
U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Lawrence E. Garrison, 23, Colorado killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1943, Garrison was a member of Company H, 2nd
Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which
landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the
Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island.
Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated.
Garrison was killed on the first day of the battle, Nov. 20, 1943.
His remains were reportedly buried in a “Division Cemetery,” but records are not clear as to which one.
Lawrence E Garrison is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii.
U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. John M. Carroll, 32, Kings County, New York killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Carroll was assigned to the 328th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Carroll was the radio operator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. David E. Holeman, 39, Kansas who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Holeman was a member of the 17th Pursuit Squadron,
24th Pursuit Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in
December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula
on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps. Holeman was among those reported captured when U.S.
forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan
Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500
POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical
records, Holeman died July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased
prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312.
Soldier
U.S. Army Pfc. Thomas F. Green, 19, Ramona CA killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for.
In October 1971, Green was assigned to the 68th Aviation Company,
52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group.
On Oct. 26, Green was serving as the door gunner on a CH-47B Chinook helicopter when it went down over water in bad weather while flying from Tuy Hoa to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam.
Remains of four of the 10 Soldiers on board were recovered during search and rescue operations following the crash, but Green was not accounted for.
Thomas is honored on the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington DC. Name inscribed at VVM Wall, Panel 02w, Line 51.
August 24
U.S. Army Cpl. Joseph J. Puopolo, 19, East Boston, Massachusetts who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, Puopolo was a member of C Battery, 38th Field
Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Infantry Division Artillery, 8th U.S. Army.
He was reported missing and he was taken Prisoner in action on Dec. 2, 1950, after his unit attempted to withdraw from Kunu-ri, North Korea, on Nov. 30, following the Battle of Ch’ongch’on.
In 1953, four POWs who returned during Operation Big Switch reported Puopolo had been a prisoner of war and died in February 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #5.
Joseph is remembered at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington.
Soldier
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sanford I. Finger, 29, New York City, NY killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for.
In October 1971, Finger was assigned to the U.S. Army Element
Vietnam, Army Air Force Regional Exchange, Pacific Exchange (Manager of the An
Son Post Exchange), U.S. Army Headquarters Area Command.
On Oct. 26, Finger was lost when the CH-47B Chinook helicopter on which he was a passenger went down over water in bad weather while flying from Tuy Hoa to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam.
Remains of four of the 10 Soldiers on board were recovered during search and rescue operations following the crash, but Finger was not accounted for.
August 23
U.S. Army Pfc. Edward J. Reiter,
17, of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In July 1950, Reiter was a member of K Company, 3rd Battalion,
34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in
action on July 7 after his unit sustained heavy casualties while defending
against the North Korean army’s advance near Ch’onan, South Korea. His body was
not recovered because his unit was forced to retreat, nor were any remains found
that could be identified as Reiter. The Army declared him non-recoverable in
January 1956 and issued a presumptive finding of death after the end of the war.
In May 1951, two sets of remains were recovered approximately one
mile north of Ch’onan. Eventual examination determined one set to be of Asian
ancestry and the other, designated X-1091 Tanggok, to be of European ancestry.
X-1091 was unable to be further identified by American Graves Registration
Service and was determined unidentifiable in August 1954. The remains were later
transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as
Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the
Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In November 2019, during Phase 2 of DPAA’s Korean War
Disinterment Project, X-1091 was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the
planned exhumation of all 53 burials originating from the United Nations
Military Cemetery Taejon and the Taejon area, and transferred to the DPAA
Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.
Reiter’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Reiter will be buried in his hometown in the fall of 2022.
Tanker
U.S. Army Pvt. John P. Cooper, 37, of
Athens, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In March 1945, Cooper was assigned to Company B, 778th Tank
Battalion, as a crew member of an M4 Sherman tank. His unit was engaged in
battle with German forces at Pellingen, near Lampaden, Germany, on March 7 when
his tank was struck by an enemy shoulder-fired rocket. Witnesses saw Cooper
escape the tank, but he was never seen or heard from again. He was declared
missing in action, but the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. On
March 8, 1946, with no evidence Cooper survived the fighting, the War Department
issued a presumptive finding of death.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration
Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel
in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Pellingen area between
1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Cooper’s remains. He was
declared non-recoverable in October 1951.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Lampaden area, a
DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-562
Hamm, recovered near Steinbach, Germany, in 1945 possibly belonged to Cooper.
The remains, which had been buried in Luxembourg American
Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hamm, Luxembourg, in
1950, were disinterred in July 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt
Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Cooper’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Lorraine
American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold,
France, along with the others still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Cooper will be buried Oct. 22, 2022, in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Donald R. Duchene, 19, St. Paul, Minnesota killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Duchene was assigned to the 343rd
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Duchene was serving as the tail gunner was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were
buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of
Bolovan,
Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
August 22
U.S. Army Pfc. Robert A. Wright, 18, who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In July 1950, Wright was a member of C Company, 1st Battalion,
19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
He went missing in action during fighting along the Kum River near Taejon, South Korea, on July 16.
Due to the fighting, his body could not be recovered at that time, and there was never any evidence that he was a prisoner of war.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.
August 19
U.S. Army Pfc. Adelaido M. Solis, 19, Victoria, Texas who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, Solis was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th
Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on
Dec. 1, 1950, after his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri, North Korea, following
the Battle of Ch’ongch’on.
In 1953, a POW returned during Operation Big Switch reported Solis had been a prisoner of war and died in April 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #5.
Army Pfc. Robert L. Alexander, 27, of
Tolley, North Dakota, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In July 1944, Alexander was a member of the 105th Infantry
Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, fighting the Japanese on Saipan in the Mariana
Islands. Alexander was killed July 7 when the Japanese general on Saipan ordered
his forces into a mass suicide, or “banzai,” attack against the 105th's lines.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration
Service (AGRS) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American
personnel in the Pacific Theater. They searched for and disinterred remains on
Saipan, but could not identify any as Alexander. He was declared non-recoverable
in September 1949.
Remains, designated as Unknown X-27 27th Infantry Division
Cemetery, were recovered from Saipan and interred in the Fort William McKinley
Cemetery, now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, an American Battle
Monuments Commission site in the Philippines.
After thorough historical research, it was determined that X-27
could likely be identified. On Jan. 22, 2019, Unknown X-27 was disinterred and
sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for
analysis.
Alexander’s name is recorded in the Courts of the Missing at the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who
are still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Alexander will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia, at a date yet to be determined.
U.S. Army Cpl. David N. Defibaugh, 18, Blair County, Pennsylvania who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In July 1950, Defibaugh was a member of C Company, 3rd Engineer
Combat Battalion, 24th Infantry Division.
He went missing in action after his unit was forced to retreat from the vicinity of Taejon, South Korea, on July 20. Due to the fighting, his body could not be recovered at that time, and there was never any evidence that he was a prisoner of war.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.
August 18
U.S. Army Pvt. David S. Whipple, 23, California who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Whipple was a member of the 27th Materiel Squadron,
20th Air Base Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in
December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula
on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps. Whipple was among those reported captured when U.S.
forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then
held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp
during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical
records, Whipple died July 26, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased
prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225.
David S Whipple is buried or memorialized at Tablets of the Missing Manila American Cemetery Manila, Philippines.
Airman
Army Air Forces Sgt. Herald R. Boyd, 25,
of Granger, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In February 1945, Boyd was assigned to 350th Bombardment
Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force in the European
Theater. On Feb. 3, the B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on which he was serving as
a gunner was part of a large mission to bomb the Tempelhof marshalling yard in
Berlin. Boyd’s bomber was one of 21 B-17s lost during the mission. Witnesses
from other aircraft said the bomber had been struck by a ground rocket
immediately after dropping its bombs. The pilot tried to save the plane, but he
was unsuccessful, and it crashed in a residential area of Berlin. Seven of the
nine crew members were killed. The other two were captured and became prisoners
of war. German records do not list Boyd among bodies recovered from the
wreckage. One of the surviving crew members confirmed Boyd had been killed in
the crash, and the War Department issued a report of death on Jan. 12, 1946.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration
Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American
personnel in Europe. They recovered 115 sets of remains from Döberitz cemetery
in Berlin near the end of 1946. Between then and 1956, six of the seven missing
crew members were identified. It was believed that Boyd was associated with a
set of remains designated Unknown X-4804 Neuville, but this could not be
conclusively proven, and X-4804 was buried at Ardennes American Cemetery, an
American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery in Belgium, in 1957.
DPAA historians are conducting ongoing, comprehensive research
focused on air losses over Germany. As a result, they determined X-4804 to be a
strong candidate for association with Boyd. The remains were disinterred in June
2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for
examination and identification.
Boyd’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Margraten
American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the
Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Boyd will be buried Sept. 17, 2022, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Elvin L.
Phillips, 23, of Salt Lake City, Utah, killed during World War II,
was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Phillips was assigned to the 66th
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force. On
Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Phillips was serving as a
gunner crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL
WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at
Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following
the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the
Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova,
Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel,
disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and
those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle
American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated
with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were
sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination
and identification.
Phillips’ name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the
Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Phillips will be buried in Bluffdale, Utah, at a date not yet
determined.
August 17
U.S. Army Pvt. Felix M. Yanez, 19, of
Douglas, Arizona, who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted
for.
In July 1950, Yanez was a member of Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was killed in action
fighting the North Korean People’s Army along the Kum River, north of Taejon,
South Korea, on July 16, 1950. Due to the fighting, his body could not be
recovered at that time.
A set of remains was recovered south of Tuman-ni, South Korea, in
March 1951. They could not be identified, were designated X-789 Tanggok, and
buried in the United Nations Cemetery Tanggok later that month. In August 1951,
the Central Identification Unit Kokura in Japan began a reexamination of X-789.
They made several attempts between then and August 1954 before ultimately
declaring the remains unidentifiable. All 848 unidentified sets of Korean War
remains at CIU-Kokura were sent to Hawaii in 1956 where they were buried at the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War
Unknowns from the Punchbowl. In August 2019, DPAA disinterred Unknown X-789 as
part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Project and sent the remains to
the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
Yanez’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Yanez will be buried Sept. 3, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona.
Navy Seaman 2nd Class John G. Bock, Jr.,
18, of St. Louis, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Bock was assigned to the battleship USS
Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was
attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits,
which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the
deaths of 429 crewmen, including Bock.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the
remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and
Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen
U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves
Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the
two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at
Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the
identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS
subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In
October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as
non-recoverable, including Bock.
Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS
Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.
Bock’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Bock will be buried on Sept. 27, 2022, at the Punchbowl.
Navy Shipfitter 2nd Class Claude R.
Garcia, 25, of Ventura, California, killed during World War II, was
accounted for.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Garcia was assigned to the battleship USS West
Virginia, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was
attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS West Virginia sustained multiple torpedo
hits, but timely counter-flooding measures taken by the crew prevented it from
capsizing, and it came to rest on the shallow harbor floor. The attack on the
ship resulted in the deaths of 106 crewmen, including Garcia.
During efforts to salvage the USS West Virginia, Navy personnel
recovered the remains of the deceased crewmen, representing at least 66
individuals. Those who could not be identified, including Garcia, were interred
as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the
Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
From June through October 2017, DPAA, in cooperation with
cemetery officials, disinterred 35 caskets, reported to be associated with the
USS West Virginia from the Punchbowl and transferred the remains to the DPAA
laboratory.
Garcia’s name is recorded in the Courts of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Garcia will be buried in his hometown at a date yet to be
determined.
Navy Fireman 2nd Class Edward E.
Casinger, 21, of Senath, Missouri, killed during World War II, was
accounted for.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Casinger was assigned to the battleship USS
Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was
attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits,
which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the
deaths of 429 crewmen, including Casinger.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the
remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and
Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen
U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves
Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the
two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at
Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the
identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS
subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In
October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as
non-recoverable, including Casinger.
Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS
Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.
Casinger’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Casinger will be buried on Nov. 19, 2022, at Arlington National
Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Airman
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Walter Nies, 23, McPherson County, South Dakota killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the winter of 1944, Nies was assigned to the 96th Bombardment
Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force.
On January 24, he was the tail gunner aboard a B-17F Flying Fortress bomber that was part bombardment mission to Sofia, Bulgaria. German fighters attacked the B-17’s formation over Yugoslavia while it was attempting to return to its home base in Italy.
The attack was largely ineffectual, but Nies’ aircraft began having engine trouble shortly after and was forced to crash land on a beach near Ulcinj, Montenegro.
The crew was captured by the Germans and all of the enlisted men, including Nies, were sent to Stalag Luft 6, a prisoner of war camp in Heydekrug, Germany.
Nies was one of only three Americans who died in that POW camp. He died May 28 after being shot.
German reports said he was trying to escape, but U.S. prisoner testimony following the war claimed he had been shot while on his way to the latrine in the early morning before the prisoners’ nightly lockdown had been lifted.
Walter Nies is buried or memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
Pilot
U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Roy C. Harms, 26, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Harms was assigned to the 329th
Bombardment Squadron, 93rd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber Harms was piloting was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
August 16
U.S. Army Cpl. George T. Grimes, 19, who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In July 1950, Grimes was a member of A Company, 1st Battalion,
34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
He went missing in action after his unit was forced to retreat from the vicinity of Taejon, South Korea, on July 20.
Due to the fighting, his body could not be recovered at that time, and there was never any evidence that he was a prisoner of war.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.
Army Pfc. David N. Owens, 27, of Green
Hills, North Carolina, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1944, Owens was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion,
12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His unit was engaged in battle
with German forces near Hürtgen, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was
reported missing in action on Nov. 22. His body unable to be recovered, and the
Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. He was declared killed in
action Nov. 23, 1945.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration
Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel
in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between
1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Owens’ remains. He was
declared non-recoverable in December 1950.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a
DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated
X-2707 Neuville, recovered near Hürtgen in 1946 possibly belonged to Owens. The
remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle
Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, in 1950, were
disinterred in August 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force
Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Owens’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at
Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Margarten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Owens will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington,
Virginia, at a date yet to be determined.
August 5
U.S. Army Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks, 27, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, Hanks was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion,
24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, 8th Army.
He was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, while his unit was attempting to withdraw from east of the Ch’ongch’on Rver near Anju, North Korea.
Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered, and there is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.
Hanks was declared nonrecoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
August 5
Army Sgt. Charles Garrigus, 24, Gibson, IN killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In late 1950, Garrigus was a member of Headquarters and
Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry
Division.
He was reported missing in action on Dec. 1, during battle with enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea.
Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Sergeant Charles Garrigus (ASN: RA-35968746), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Sergeant Garrigus distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, during the period 27 November 1950 through 1 December 1950.
Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered, and there is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.
Charles Garrigus is buried or memorialized at Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
Army Pfc. Lowell D. Smith, 24, of
Battle Creek, Michigan, killed during World War II, was accounted
for.
In January 1945, Smith was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion,
157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. The unit was in regimental
reserve during the Battle of Reipertswiller in France. On Jan. 21, Smith was
part of a Browning Automatic Rifle squad when his company attacked German forces
surrounding several companies in an attempt to help them break out. Company F
immediately drew enemy artillery and mortar fire followed by sniper and
machine-gun fire and was forced to withdraw.
When the unit reassembled following the withdrawal, Smith was
missing. In May that year, Army personnel reviewing captured German records
discovered a German death report for Smith dated the day he went missing.
Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in
the European Theater, searched the area around Reipertswiller, finding 37
unidentified sets of American remains, but it was unable to identify any of them
as Smith. He was declared non-recoverable on July 19, 1951.
DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into
Soldiers missing from combat around Reipertswiller, and found that Unknown
X-8062 St. Avold, buried at Lorraine American Cemetery, an American Battle
Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France, could be associated with Smith.
X-8062 was disinterred in June 2021 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at
Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.
Smith’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal
American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Dinozé,
France, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Smith will be buried in Augusta, Michigan, at a date yet to be
determined.
Navy Fire Controlman 1st Class Hubert P.
Clement, 30, of Inman, South Carolina, killed during World War II,
was accounted for.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Clement was assigned to the battleship USS
Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was
attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits,
which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the
deaths of 429 crewmen, including Clement.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the
remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and
Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen
U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves
Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the
two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at
Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the
identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS
subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In
October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as
non-recoverable, including Clement.
Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS
Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.
Clement’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monument
Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who
are missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Clement will be buried Oct. 10, 2022, at the Punchbowl.
Marine Corps Reserve Pvt. Fay G. Teter, 17, Ardmore, MO killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1943, Teter was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion,
6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which landed
against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa
Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island.
Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated.
Teter was killed on the third day of the battle, Nov. 22, 1943.
The day after he died, Private Teter was reportedly buried in “Gilbert Islands Cemetery”
His remains were reportedly buried in Cemetery 33.
Marine
Marine Corps Reserve 2nd Lt. Gordon E. Thompson, 22, Moccasin, MT killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In August 1942, Thompson was a member of Marine Fighting Squadron
224, Marine Aircraft Group 23. On Aug. 31, he was piloting one of 26 Grumman F4F
Wildcat fighters on an interception mission near Guadalcanal. Despite no enemy
contact, Thompson was one of three who failed to return from the mission.
One of the pilots returned 10 days later, but Thompson was never seen again and was listed as missing in action.
Speculation ran rife among the pilots – enemy action,
disorientation, engine failure – but veterans blamed the notorious oxygen system
of the Wildcat itself.
The three young officers were listed as missing in action that afternoon.
The Department of the Navy issued a finding of death on Jan. 8, 1946.
Army Pvt. Carl G. Dorsey, 19, of Moline,
Kansas, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In December 1944, Dorsey was assigned to Company I, 3rd
Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His unit was engaged
in battle with German forces near Grosshau, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when
he was reported missing in action on Dec. 4. His body unable to be recovered,
and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war.
He was declared killed in action Dec. 5, 1945.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration
Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel
in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between
1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Dorsey’s remains. He was
declared non-recoverable in December 1950.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a
DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated
X-2760 Neuville, recovered east of Grosshau near Gey, Germany, in 1946 possibly
belonged to Dorsey. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American
Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz,
Belgium, in 1950, were disinterred in July 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory
at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Dorsey’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at
Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in
Margarten, Netherlands,
along with the others still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Dorsey will be buried Sept. 3, 2022, in Grenola, Kansas.
U.S. Army Pfc. Arthur L. Pierce, 26, Middlesex County, Massachusetts who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
In late 1941, Pierce was a member of the 803rd Engineer Battalion
in the Philippines, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in
December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula
on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and
interned at POW camps. Pierce was among those reported captured when U.S. forces
in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death
March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in
this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical
records, Pierce died July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased
prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312.
Arthur L Pierce is buried or memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. George
B. Walker, 25, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, killed during World
War II, was accounted for.
In the winter of 1944, Walker was assigned to the 369th
Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force. On Feb. 3,
he was the engineer and turret gunner aboard a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber that
was part of a large bombing mission against the Wilhelmshaven Naval Shipyard in
Wilhelmshaven, Germany. When the formation was flying near Oldenburg, it came
under anti-aircraft fire. Even though there was no obvious damage, Walker’s
bomber began to lag behind the formation as it experienced general mechanical
failure.
The pilot flew the B-17 over the water and the crew bailed out. Germans captured several of the crew, including Walker, who was sent to Stalag Luft 6, a prisoner of war camp in Heydekrug, Germany.
Walker was one of only three Americans who died
in that POW camp. He died April 28 when he was shot while trying to escape.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC),
the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in
the European Theater, was unable to recover the three Americans’ remains because
Stalag Luft 6, now inside Lithuania because of post-war border shifting, was
deep inside the Soviet occupation zone. In 1948, the AGRC provided a list of
Americans whose remains were believed to be in Soviet territory to the Soviet
government, but Walker’s couldn’t remains couldn’t be identified. The AGRC
provided additional information on Walker to the Soviets in 1950, but by
September 1951, he could still not be found. He was declared non-recoverable on
March 25, 1954.
After Lithuania became independent in 1992, the U.S.-Russia Joint
Commission on POW/MIAs requested the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius look into Walker’s
case. They discovered the Soviet Union destroyed Stalag Luft 6 in 1955 and
reverted the area to farmland. In 2006, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command (JPAC), a DPAA predecessor, and the Joint Commission Support
Directorate, investigated the site and recommended excavation. However,
significant issues prevented them from sending a recovery team. Around this
time, the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), also a DPAA predecessor,
found several new sources of information pertaining to the case at the National
Archives.
DPAA partnered with Ohio Valley Archeology, Inc. (OVAI) in 2019,
and an OVAI team investigated the sight that September, finding possible
gravesites for the three missing Americans. A Lithuanian archeological group
called Kulturos Vertybiu Globa (Guardianship of Cultural Values) was also active
in the area and was planning an excavation of Polish and Lithuanian remains near
Stalag Luft 6, so DPAA partnered with them to excavate the possible gravesites,
which they did in August 2021. The remains found at the site were transferred to
the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.
Walker’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at
Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)
site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with others still missing from WWII.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Walker will be buried in his hometown. The date has yet to be
determined.
August 3
U.S. Army Cpl. Alton Christie, 18, Hamilton county, Florida killed during the Korean War, was accounted for.
In July 1950, Christie was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion,
21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
He was reported missing in action on July 5 after his unit has been engaged by the Korean People’s Army near Osan, South Korea.
There is no indication his remains were recovered after the battle and he was never recorded as a prisoner of war.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953, and his remains were determined to be nonrecoverable in January 1956.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Peter A. Timpo, 24, killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In the summer of 1943, Timpo was assigned to the 343rd
Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Timpo was serving as the bombardier was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
U.S. Army Pfc. Willard H. Brinks, 24, from Kalamazoo, Michigan killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1942, Brinks was assigned to the Company K, 3rd
Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division, deployed in present
day Papua New Guinea.
As part of an attempt to neutralize the Japanese threat to Port Moresby, the Allied center of communications in the area, Brinks’ unit attempted to flank the enemy defensive lines stretched across the Sanananda Track in northern Papua.
Brinks was reported as killed in action on Nov. 22, the first day of the Allied attack.
Private First Class Brinks is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Army Pvt. Myron E. Williams, 29, from Illinois killed during World War II, was accounted for.
In November 1944, Williams was assigned to Company L, 3rd
Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.
His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Hürtgen, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported missing in action on Nov. 16.
His body unable to be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war.
He was declared killed in action Nov. 17, 1945.
Private Williams is Memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.
U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Merle L. Pickup, 27,