Identified WW2 missing B-24 crew
 

NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense

No. 682-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jul 18, 2006 Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry(703)428-0711

Missing WWII Airmen Identified
The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced
today
that nine 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. William M. Hafner, Norfolk, Va.; 2nd Lt.
Arthur
C. Armacost, III, Cincinnati, Ohio; 2nd Lt. David R. Eppright,
Warrensburg,
Mo.; 2nd Lt. Charles F. Feucht, Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Technical Sgt.
Raymond S.
Cisneros, San Antonio, Texas; Technical Sgt. Alfred W. Hill, Temple,
Okla.;
Technical Sgt. James G. Lascelles, New York, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. William
C.
Cameron, Los Angeles, Calif.; and Staff Sgt. Wilburn W. Rozzell,
Duncan, Okla.
All were members of the 63rd Bombardment Squadron, 43 Bombardment
Group.



The individually-identified remains of Armacost, Cameron,
Hafner
and Lascelles will be buried July 19 at Arlington National Cemetery
near
Washington, D.C. as are the group remains representing all nine
crewmen.
Cisneros, Rozzell, Feucht, Eppright and Hill were buried elsewhere.



On November 4, 1943 Hafner and his crew took off in a B-24 Liberator
from
Dobodura, Territory of New Guinea. The men were on an armed
reconnaissance
mission over the Bismark Sea. A few hours into the flight Hafner
sighted a
convoy of Japanese ships and was told to shadow the convoy and report
back.
Four hours later the crew radioed from the B-24 that they had made
three
direct hits on the convoy and destroyed the target. That was the last
radio
contact with the crew.



In March 2002 a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command
(JPAC) was contacted by a local government official through the U.S.
Embassy.
The team was exploring unrelated WW II aircraft crash sites in Papua
New
Guinea. The official turned over aircraft data plates, human remains
and
three ID tags which had been found at a crash site in Morobe Province.



During the excavation of the site in Aug.-Sept. 2003, the
team
recovered additional remains and personal effects including
identification
tags and bracelets. The remains were submitted to the Armed Forces DNA
Identification Laboratory (AFDIL). Specialists at JPAC and AFDIL used
mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify the
remains of
these servicemen. Laboratory analysis of dental remains also confirmed
their
identification.

Re: Identified WW2 missing B-24 crew
 

It seems that the Americans search out & bring home their KIA/MIA airmens' bodies if at all possible.To be commended, I feel. An ending of uncertainty for the close relatives-if they are still alive .

My RAAF father's 31 SAAF Liberator disappeared on land,in a lake or in the coastal seas of Italy Oct.1944 .Still searching but without much hope.

Anne

Re: Identified WW2 missing B-24 crew
 

You are correct. JPAC is responsible for identifying and recovering the remains of U.S. military personnel declared as either POWs or MIAs. They even have their own web site, where you can read about their (trememdous) efforts:

http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/index.htm

Re: Identified WW2 missing B-24 crew
 

Sorry to hear about your father aestorm. Yes- US authorities pay a lot of attention but they still miss a lot of data. Thousand of miss still have to be found.