Defense

Remains of U.S. military personnel identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office has announced that two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are...

Federal News Radio Custom Media@WTOPWFEDcustom

September 13, 2013 11:32 am

< a min read

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office has announced that two 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.

Army Air Force 2nd Lt. Valorie L. Pollard of Monterey, Calif. and Sgt. Dominick J. Licari of Frankfort, N.Y. will be buried on Sept. 19 at Arlington National Cemetery.

On March 13, 1944, Pollard and Licari were crew members of an A-20G Havoc bomber that failed to return to base in a country now known as Papua New Guinea. The aircraft crashed after attacking enemy targets on the island. In 2012, the A-20G crash site in the mountains of Papua New Guinea was excavated and the remains of Licari and Pollard were recovered.

There are more than 400,000 American service members that were killed during WWII, and the remains of more than 73,000 were never recovered or identified.