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 First Lieutnant William M. Hafner, Norfolk, Virginia; Second Lieutenant Arthur C. Armacost, III, Cincinnati, Ohio; Second Lieutenant David R. Eppright, Warrensburg, Missouri; Second Lieutenant Charles F. Feucht, Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Technical Sergeant Raymond S. Cisneros, San Antonio, Texas; Technical Sergeant Alfred W. Hill, Temple, Oklahoma; Technical Sergeant James G. Lascelles, New York, New York; Staff Sergeant William C. Cameron, Los Angeles, California; and Staff Sergeant Wilburn W. Rozzell, Duncan, Oklahoma. 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, 2006, 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 August-September 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.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/ [http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/]  or call (703) 699-1169.

Nine World War II airmen, whose B-24 Liberator crashed in New Guinea while on a reconnaissance mission more than a half-century ago, were buried Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

The remains of the crew, along with dog tags, ID bracelets, coins, knives and a wallet were found at the crash site on a mountain slope in Papua New Guinea in 2002. U.S. investigators used DNA testing and dental records to identify the airmen.

On Wednesday, family members of the flight crew stood together behind a caisson, pulled by six white horses, as eight uniformed officers carried a flag-draped casket containing remains of all nine men to the burial site.

Two of the Army Air Force men -- First Lieutenant  William M. Hafner of Norfolk, Virginia, and Technical Sergeant James G. Lascelles of New York -- were buried in individual caskets at the Arlington cemetery during the same ceremony.

The other members of the crew, some of whom were buried elsewhere, were Second Lieutenant Arthur C. Armacost III, of Cincinnati; Second Lieutenant David R. Eppright, of Warrensburg, Missouri; Second Lieutenant Charles F. Feucht, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Technical Sergeant Raymond S. Cisneros, of San Antonio; Technical Sergeant Alfred W. Hill, of Temple, Oklahoma; Staff Sergeant William C. Cameron, of Los Angeles; and Staff Sergeant Wilburn W. Rozzell, of Duncan, Okla. All were members of the 63rd Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Group.

The funeral came almost 63 years after the airmen failed to return from a November 5, 1943, flight over the Bismark Sea near New Guinea, now Papua New Guinea. The airmen had been following a convoy of Japanese ships, which they reported had been destroyed. They were not heard from again.

Photo Courtesy of Holly, August 2006

Photo Courtesy of Holly, August 2006