Investigators
for a U.S. military unit formed to account for missing war
veterans have compiled a list of fewer than 10 missing
World War II Army airmen who could have crashed in Kings
Canyon National Park in the early 1940s and whose remains
could be those of an ice-encased soldier thawing out in
the Fresno County morgue.
Ice climbers discovered the man last weekend at the
base of Mount Mendel, in the extreme northern portion of
the park's mountainous wilderness. On Wednesday, park
rangers and a forensic anthropologist from the military's
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command chipped the man out of
the ice.
..... E-mail Suzanne Herel at sherel@sfchronicle.com.
====================
No. 1056-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct 18, 2005
Airmen Missing from World War II Identified
The remains of three U.S. servicemen, missing in action
since 1941, have been identified and are being returned to
their families for burial with full military honors.
They are Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Augustus J. Allen, of
Myrtle Springs, Texas, Staff Sgt. James D. Cartwright, of
Los Angeles, Calif., and Cpl. Paul R. Stubbs, of Haverhill,
Mass.
On June 8, 1941, Allen, Cartwright and Stubbs departed
France Field, Panama in an O-47A aircraft, en route to Rio
Hato, Panama. When the aircraft failed to arrive at its
destination, a search was initiated by both air and ground
forces, but with negative results.
In April 1999, a Panamanian citizen reported to
Panamanian Civil Aeronautics (PCA) he had discovered
aircraft wreckage while hunting in the mountains of Panama
Province, Republic of Panama. After a PCA search and rescue
team visited the site, the wreckage was reported to the
Joint Prisoner of War Accounting Command (JPAC). JPAC
specialists surveyed the area in August 1999, and in
February 2002 excavated the site where they recovered
remains and crew-related artifacts. The crash site was along
Allen's suspected flight path, and the aircraft was
consistent with O-47A aircraft from the 39th Observation
Squadron, their assigned unit. Additionally, the team
recovered crew-related items at the site which helped
confirm the identity of the airmen.
Scientists of JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA
Identification Lab used mitochondrial DNA as one of the
tools in the identification of the remains of Allen,
Cartwright and Stubbs.
Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from World War
II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and
Desert Storm, 78,000 are from World War II.
For additional information on the Department of Defense's
mission to account for missing Americans, visit the Defense
Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) Website at
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo, or call (703) 699-1169.
=====================
09/12/2005
MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The remains of a Korean War veteran
from Pennsylvania who was listed as missing in action nearly
55 years ago have been identified, a funeral home said.
Army Cpl. Edwin C. Steigerwalt, 22, of Lehighton, will be
buried in Allentown on Friday with full military honors,
according to the Heintzelman Funeral Home, which is handling
arrangements......
===========================
No. 750-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jul 22, 2005
Korean War Missing In Action Serviceman
Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of a
U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have
been identified and are being returned to his family for
burial with full military honors.
He is Cpl. Leslie R. Heath, of Bridgeport, Ill. His
interment is scheduled for Aug. 20 in
Bridgeport.
On the morning of April 23, 1951, Heath and more than 80
members of 'A' Company, 1st Battalion,
5th Regimental Combat Team were captured by Chinese
Communist forces. They were held in a temporary POW
camp known as Suan Camp Complex, in
North Hwanghae Province, North Korea. A former
American POW who was
returned to the U.S. through Operation Little
Switch recounted that Heath died in June
1951 while imprisoned.
On July 16, 1993, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
returned 17 boxes of remains to the
United States from the Korean War. One of the boxes contained
remains of several individuals and two of Heath's
identification tags. Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command (JPAC) conducted years of forensic
examinations of the remains and associated evidence until
they made an identification two months ago.
Information provided by the North Koreans about the
recovered remains was consistent with
the approximate location where Heath was believed held
captive and died. Artifacts in the boxes were those of
a soldier in the U.S. Army infantry at
the time of the war.
JPAC submitted skeletal remains on 11 occasions to the Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
for analysis. Heath's mitochondrial DNA sequence
matched that of two of his maternal
relatives.
Of the 88,000 Americans unaccounted for from World War II,
the Korean War, the Cold War, the
Vietnam War and Desert Storm, more than 8,100 are from the
Korean War. More than 2,000 of those were held as
prisoners of war.
For additional information on the Department of Defense's
mission to account for missing
Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo
or call (703) 699-1169.
===================
No. 661-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jun 30, 2005
Korean War Missing in Action Serviceman Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of a U.S. Army soldier,
missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified
and are being returned to his family for burial in
Schererville, Ind.
He is Pfc. Lowell W. Bellar of Gary, Ind. He is to be
buried on July 15, the date of his birth in 1931.
In November - December 1950, Bellar's unit, Company M, 31st
Infantry Regiment, was surrounded and overrun by Chinese
Communist forces near the Chosin Reservoir in northeast North
Korea. Elements of his unit joined other U.S. forces in the
breakout and fighting retreat to relative safety further south
to an area near the village of Hagaru. Regimental records
compiled after the battle indicate that Bellar was killed in
action Dec. 1, 1950. More than 1,000 men, primarily Marines
and Army soldiers, are still missing in North Korea from the
Chosin campaign.
Joint U.S.-North Korean recovery teams, led by the Joint
POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated a site in North
Korea in September 2001, and again in October, that was
believed to be the location where American soldiers were
buried. They recovered remains believed to be those of 12
individuals, some of which were la ter identified as those of
Bellar.
Laboratory analysis of the remains by forensic scientists
at JPAC led to Bellar's identification. Comparisons of
Bellar's mitochondrial DNA data with samples from his family
were key factors in their finding.
Of the 88,000 Americans unaccounted for from all conflicts,
approximately 8,100 are from the Korean War. Remains believed
to be those of more than 220 American servicemen have been
recovered in joint operations in North Korea since 1996.
=================
No. 650-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jun 27, 2005
Korean War Missing in Action Serviceman Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced
today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action
from the Korean War,
have been identified and are being returned to his family for
burial in Fergus
Falls, Minn. on Wednesday.
He is Cpl. John O. Strom of Fergus Falls, Minn.
On the night of Nov. 1, 1950, Strom's unit, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry
Regiment, came under attack by Chinese communist forces near the village
of Unsan in North Korea. His battalion sought to escape the larger
Chinese unit, and evacuated along a route well documented in U.S. records.
The fighting raged on for several days, and by Nov. 4, those
men able to escape withdrew to friendly lines south of the
Kuryong River, though more than 380 soldiers of the 8th
Cavalry Regiment were unaccounted for.
In July and August 2002, a joint team of U.S. and North Korean specialists
investigated a site near Unsan where a villager had reportedly reburied
remains believed to be those of a U.S. serviceman from another location.
The team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), excavated
both sites and found human remains as well as a few pieces of
non-biological evidence. The team was also given Strom's military
identification tag found by the villager.....
======================
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense
No. 617-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jun 17, 2005
WWII Missing in Action Soldiers Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of two Army soldiers missing in
action from World War II have been identified and returned to
their families for burial.
They are Sgt. John T. Puckett, Wichita, Kan., and Pvt. Earnest E.
Brown, Bristol, Va. Puckett will be buried tomorrow at the
Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupre, Belgium. Brown was
buried last week near Bristol, Va.
On Jan. 15, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge, Puckett and
Brown were searching for German soldiers in a wooded area near
Elsenborn, Belgium. They were ambushed and came under
intense enemy machine gun and mortar fire. Eyewitnesses indicated
they were killed, but their bodies could not be recovered due to
enemy activity.
Following the war, remains of American soldiers were recovered and
identified, but not those of Puckett and Brown. Then in
1992, two Belgian nationals located and excavated an abandoned
fighting position in the forest east of Elsenborn. They
recovered remains and other evidence and turned them over to U.S.
authorities in Europe.
Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA as one
of the forensic tools to identify the remains as those of Puckett
and Brown.
Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts,
78,000 are from World War II.
===============
| Posted on Wed, Jun. 08, 2005 |
|
For years after Sgt. John Puckett of Wichita went
missing in action in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, his
younger sister clung to hope he was alive.
"It took me some years to believe that he wasn't
coming back," said Joann Bowman of her brother, known as
Jack, who was 21 when he died......
|
===============
May 20, 2005
Release No. 047
AFPC: Keeping the faith
By Maj. Gen. Tony Przybyslawski
AFPC commander
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --
This Memorial Day the Air Force will lay to rest, Capt. Troy Cope, a
Korean War veteran; his family will find peace at last, and the Air
Force Personnel Center missing persons team will close the case of
another unaccounted-for Airman.
Although Captain Cope's F-86 crashed
more than 50 years ago near the China/North Korea border, his
country never gave up its efforts to bring him home.
===========
April 20, 2005
Navy divers
search for remains of downed WW II fliers
By Christopher
Munsey
Times staff writer
Seventeen members of Hawaii-based Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One
are using their diving skills to help find remains of American
fliers lost in a World War II bombing raid in the Pacific.
The recovery team is searching the wreckage of a B-24J
Liberator bomber lost to Japanese anti-aircraft fire during a raid
Sept. 1, 1944, in the Palau island chain.
.....
=========================
No. 352-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Apr 12, 2005
WWII Missing in Action Serviceman Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of an Army Air Forces crewman have been
identified and are being returned to his family for burial with military honors.
Staff Sgt. Robert W. McKee of Garvey, Calif., will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery April 12.
On Dec. 17, 1944, McKee was an aerial gunner on an 11-member crew
of a B-24L *Liberator* that took off from Pantanella, Italy, on a
mission to bomb enemy targets near Blechhammer, Germany. The aircraft crashed
over Hungary, near the small towns of Böhönye and Felsosegesd, with the loss of two
crewmen including McKee. The other nine were able to safely parachute from
the aircraft. Following the war, the remains of the other unaccounted-for crewman were
found in a cemetery in Felsosegesd.
Following the war, remains from an American aircraft crash near
Vienna, Austria, were found buried with McKee’s military
identification tag. But the remains were identified as those of another flyer.
Further analysis revealed that McKee had flown on the same plane and had lost his
identification tag, most likely on that aircraft.
In 1992 an undertaker recovered remains believed to be those of an
American in the Böhönye, Hungary, cemetery but they could not
be associated with a specific incident. DPMO analysts obtained information
from a Hungarian researcher which indicated that the remains might be associated with
McKee’s loss. Aerial gunner’s wings were found in the grave, as well as other
items worn by U.S. bomber crews in 1944.
Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used a number of forensic tools
including mitochondrial DNA to confirm McKee’s identity, matching his
DNA with that of two known maternal relatives.
Of the 88,000 Americans missing from all conflicts, 78,000 are
from World War II.
=======================
| Posted on Thu, Apr. 07, 2005 |
|
BERWICK – Cpl. Curtis Longenberger’s late mother
added a spare bedroom onto her home with his life insurance
money, believing her missing son would someday return from
World War II.
After 63 years, his remains are coming home.
Longenberger was among those identified in the wreckage
of a B-17 bomber that a villager discovered in the jungles of
Papua New Guinea in 1999......
|
|
WWII vet's remains found
Edwin Alford family members
sought by Navy
BY BOB ANN BRELAND
THE DAILY NEWS
BOGALUSA -- A Bogalusan is among
seven World War II Navy aviators whose remains
have been recovered from the side of a volcano in
the Aleutian Islands.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Elwin
Alford, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy in New
Orleans on May 21, 1941, is identified as one of
the crewmen.......
Anyone with any knowledge of any
of Alford's family members are asked to contact
Lt. Robert V. Sanchez toll free at 1-800-443-9298,
by e-mail at robert.v.sanchez@navy.mil
or by fax a 901-874-8854 DSN 882.
|
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense
No. 304-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mar 31, 2005
Cold War Missing In Action Aviator Identified
The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) has
announced that the remains of the co-pilot of an aircraft
shot down in China during the Cold War have been identified
and will soon be returned to his family.
He is Robert C. Snoddy of Roseburg, Ore.
Snoddy and his pilot, Norman A. Schwartz, took off from an
airfield near Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 29, 1952, with two
other crewmembers to extract a CIA operative from China.
The mission in the Jilin province of northeast China was
planned to pick up the agent on the ground with an airborne
extraction system.
Unfortunately, the Chinese had compromised the agent on the
ground, and when the C-47 aircraft flew over the pickup
point it was shot down by hostile ground fire. Snoddy
and Schwartz were reportedly killed, and two other
crewmembers, Richard G. Fecteau and John T. Downey, were
captured by the Chinese and held until 1971 and 1973,
respectively.....
==============================
Deseret Morning News
March 17, 2005
WWII Utah airman finally home
Leigh Dethman, Deseret Morning News
It seemed Sgt. Mac S. Groesbeck had long been forgotten.
His B-17 bomber crashed decades ago, and the entire eight-man
crew had been given up for dead and presumed drowned in the
Pacific.
Yet since that fateful 1942 bombing mission, the Utah airman's
family never gave up hope. It took more than 62 years to
finally bring Groesbeck home for a proper burial.
.....
=============================
03/2005
Remains are not pilot's in China spy mission
Louisvillian Schwartz shot down in 1952
By Sheryl Edelen
sedelen@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
U.S. military investigators analyzing materials from the site
of a plane crash in China that killed a Louisville pilot on a
CIA mission in 1952 have identified remains found there as those
of his co-pilot.
The family of pilot Norman Schwartz, who grew up in the Camp
Taylor area, had thought the remains might be his.
Erik Kirzinger, Schwartz's nephew who lives in North
Carolina, said by telephone last night that he was notified by a
CIA casualty officer that the remains were those of Robert
Snoddy of Roseburg, Ore.......
=============
Remains of missing U.S. soldier found in China to be returned.
BEIJING, Feb. 28 Kyodo
The remains of a U.S. Air Force pilot shot down in
the Korean War have turned up in China and will be sent back to
the United States for burial with full military honors, the U.S.
Embassy in Beijing said.
Capt. Troy Cope was identified in October after a U.S.
government investigation conducted following the 1995 discovery of
his dog tag in a Chinese military museum, the embassy said in a
statement.
....
================
World
War II soldier´s remains found in Germany
The Associated Press
March 3, 2005
A military funeral is planned next week for Pfc. Preston
"Pug" Harris, a World War II soldier whose remains were
recently discovered and returned to Texas.
In 1944, the 23-year-old soldier from Greenville was part of the
405th Infantry Regiment, 102nd Infantry Division that was fighting
along the heavily fortified Siegfried Line near the
German-Netherlands border......
================
Missing Korean War Serviceman Identified
DoD Press Release
2005-02-25
The Department of Defense announced today that the remains of a
U. S. Air Force pilot, missing in action from the Korean War, has
been identified and will soon be returned to his family for burial
with full military honors.
Air Force Captain Troy “Gordie” Cope of Norfolk, Ark., will
be buried in Plano, Texas, on May 31.
On Sept. 16, 1952, Cope and his wingman, both flying F-86 Saber
Jets from Kimpo Air Base in South Korea, encountered six MiG-15s of
the North Korean Air Force. Cope was flying near the Yalu River,
separating North Korea from China, on combat air patrol in an area
known as “MiG Alley.” In the ensuing aerial dogfight, Cope lost
contact with his wingman and was never seen again......
About two
weeks ago a subscriber to The Collectors Newsletter
(http://www.tias.com/newsletter) suggested that the
235,000 newsletter readers might help the Navy find living
relatives of the Kiska crewmen. The online newsletter runs
a column that helps people find missing relatives and
friends. The column had been quite successful in the past,
so it was ideally suited to assist the Navy in their
search for Robert Kellers' family. This week, with the
help of readers of The Collectors Newsletter, the Navy
found the sister of Robert Keller in Denver, Colorado. http://www.clickpress.com/releases/Detailed/1027005cp.shtml
04/20/2005
====================================
Navy wants
to return World War II pilot’s remains to his family
By Travis M.
Whitehead
The Monitor
MISSION,
February 20, 2005 — The U.S. Navy is trying to locate
the family of a Navy crewman killed during World War II
after his remains were recovered from the barren slope of
a volcano in Alaska.
The remains of
Seaman 2nd Class Dee Hall, a Mission native, were found
almost four years ago on the northwest face of Kiska
Volcano in the Aleutian Islands of western Alaska. He was
found along with six other crewmen who were in a
twin-engine Navy PBY-5A amphibious reconnaissance aircraft
when the Japanese shot it down June 14, 1942.
.....
Anyone with
information about Hall or his family should call Sanchez
at (901) 874-2666 or e-mail him at
robert.v.sanchez@navy.mil
|
January 29, 2005
By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer
VIDALIA, Ga. - Pvt. Odell Sharpe returned home to Georgia in
a flag-draped casket on Friday, nearly 60 years after he was
presumed killed in action along the Belgian-German border during
one of the biggest battles of World War II
.......
The military stunned Sharpe's family last month with word
his remains had been found in September 2003 by a Belgian
search team in what appeared to be a foxhole. A shaving kit, a
broken comb and dog tags were with his skeleton, and forensic
specialists made sure the bones and teeth matched Sharpe's
records.
=======================
WWII Soldier's Remains to Head to
Texas
Sun Jan 23, 4:01 PM ET
U.S. National - AP
EAGLE PASS, Texas - More than 60
years after his plane disappeared during World War II on a mission
to raid a Japanese base, an Army Air Corps soldier's remains are
coming home.
First Lt. James Walter Carver will
be buried with full military honors Saturday at the foot of his
mother's grave in Eagle Pass, the family said.......
==================
January 17, 2005, 102 AM
MONROE, Mich. (AP) -- Pfc. Henry D. Mathus no longer is missing.
The remains of the Monroe resident, who was last seen Nov. 1, 1950
-- the day he was to have been sent home from Korea -- will be sent to the
United States in March. The casket, along with a uniform and Mathus'
posthumous medals, will be buried with full military honors in his
hometown of Bowling Green, Ky..... Henry Mathus, 19, was among those
listed as missing in action after invading Chinese overran an outnumbered
Army battalion near the North Korean village of Usan..... .
|
