Posted on 07/02/2010 2:52:10 PM PDT by gandalftb
The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of seven servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Army Capt. Joseph M. Olbinski, Chicago; 1st Lt. Joseph J. Auld, Floral Park, N.Y.; 1st Lt. Robert M. Anderson, Millen, Ga.; Tech. Sgt. Clarence E. Frantz, Tyrone, Penn.; Pfc. Richard M. Dawson, Haynesville, Va.; Pvt. Robert L. Crane, Sacramento, Calif.; and Pvt. Fred G. Fagan, Piedmont, Ala., were identified and all are to be interred July 15 in Arlington National Cemetery.
On May 23, 1944, the men were aboard a C-47A Skytrain that departed Dinjan, India, on an airdrop mission to resupply Allied forces near Myitkyina, Burma. When the crew failed to return, air and ground searches found no evidence of the aircraft along the intended flight path.
In late 2002, a missionary provided U.S. officials a data plate from a C-47 crash site approximately 31 miles northwest of Myitkyina. In 2003, a Burmese citizen turned over human remains and identification tags for three of the crew members.
A Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team excavated the crash site in 2003 and 2004, recovering additional remains and crew-related equipmentincluding an identification tag for Dawson.
(Excerpt) Read more at defense.gov ...
Six days later, these men flew one of the first resupply drops to the starving Marauders. They flew through vitually unmapped territory, constant low cloud obscurity and steep mountain ranges and valleys to land at the airport that was still heavily opposed by thousands of Japanese forces.
All of Merrill's Marauders received bronze stars, I hope these men do also. Welcome home warriors.
Salute.
ping
Welcome home.
Your country didn’t forget you men. Welcome home.
48 stars? I remember flags like that...
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