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Pacific Historian
Nine Missing WWII Airmen are Identified
The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced
today that the remains of nine U.S. servicemen, missing in action
from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to
their families for burial with full military honors.
They are 1st Lt. David P. McMurray, of Melrose, Mass.;
1st Lt. Raymond Pascual, of Houston, Texas; 2nd Lt. Millard C. Wells
Jr., of Paris, Ky.; Tech. Sgt. Leonard J. Ray, of Upper Falls, Md.;
Tech. Sgt. Hyman L. Stiglitz, of Boston, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Robert L.
Cotey, of Vergennes, Vt.; Staff Sgt. Francis E. Larrivee, of Laconia,
N.H.; Staff Sgt. Robert J. Flood, of Neelyton, Pa.; and Staff Sgt.
Walter O. Schlosser, of Lake City, Mich.; all U.S. Army Air Forces.
Ray and Flood were buried last week in Harford County, Md., and Dry
Run, Pa., respectively. The burials of the other servicemen will be
at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. on a date to be
determined.
Representatives from the Army met with the next-of-kin of these men
in their hometowns to explain the recovery and identification process
and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the
secretary of the Army.
On July 7, 1944, the men were aboard a B-24J Liberator that departed
North Pickenham, England, on a mission to bomb a German aircraft
factory near Bernburg, Germany. The plane was last seen by U.S.
aircrew members in that vicinity. Captured records revealed that it
had crashed near Westeregeln, about 20 miles northwest of the target
in what would become the Soviet sector of a post-war-divided Germany.
In 2001, a group of German citizens interested in
recovering wartime relics and remains learned of a potential crash
site south of Westeregeln. Later that year and in 2002, the group
found the site and uncovered human remains from what appeared to be
two burial locations. The remains and other personal effects,
including identification tags, were turned over to U.S. officials.
In 2003, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team
excavated the crash site and recovered additional remains,
identification tags and non-biological material evidence.
Among dental records, other forensic identification tools
and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in
the identification of the remains.
The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced
today that the remains of nine U.S. servicemen, missing in action
from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to
their families for burial with full military honors.
They are 1st Lt. David P. McMurray, of Melrose, Mass.;
1st Lt. Raymond Pascual, of Houston, Texas; 2nd Lt. Millard C. Wells
Jr., of Paris, Ky.; Tech. Sgt. Leonard J. Ray, of Upper Falls, Md.;
Tech. Sgt. Hyman L. Stiglitz, of Boston, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Robert L.
Cotey, of Vergennes, Vt.; Staff Sgt. Francis E. Larrivee, of Laconia,
N.H.; Staff Sgt. Robert J. Flood, of Neelyton, Pa.; and Staff Sgt.
Walter O. Schlosser, of Lake City, Mich.; all U.S. Army Air Forces.
Ray and Flood were buried last week in Harford County, Md., and Dry
Run, Pa., respectively. The burials of the other servicemen will be
at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. on a date to be
determined.
Representatives from the Army met with the next-of-kin of these men
in their hometowns to explain the recovery and identification process
and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the
secretary of the Army.
On July 7, 1944, the men were aboard a B-24J Liberator that departed
North Pickenham, England, on a mission to bomb a German aircraft
factory near Bernburg, Germany. The plane was last seen by U.S.
aircrew members in that vicinity. Captured records revealed that it
had crashed near Westeregeln, about 20 miles northwest of the target
in what would become the Soviet sector of a post-war-divided Germany.
In 2001, a group of German citizens interested in
recovering wartime relics and remains learned of a potential crash
site south of Westeregeln. Later that year and in 2002, the group
found the site and uncovered human remains from what appeared to be
two burial locations. The remains and other personal effects,
including identification tags, were turned over to U.S. officials.
In 2003, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team
excavated the crash site and recovered additional remains,
identification tags and non-biological material evidence.
Among dental records, other forensic identification tools
and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in
the identification of the remains.
