Missing WWII Servicemen are Identified

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by SSGMike.Ivy, Jun 10, 2006.

  1. SSGMike.Ivy

    SSGMike.Ivy Senior Member

    Welcome Home you have never been forgotten

    The Defense POW/Missing Personnel (DPMO) announced today that three servicemen missing in action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

    The three are 2nd Lt. Robert H. Cameron of Elkhart, Ind.; Cpl. George E. Cunningham of Rich Hill, N.Y., all U.S. Army Air Forces; and Capt. Vladimir M. Sasko, Chicago, U.S. Army Medical Corps. Cameron will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., on Friday. Sasko was buried in December in Chicago, and final arrangements for Cunningham have yet to be confirmed.

    On Dec. 10, 1944, a C-47 crewed by Cameron and Cunningham took off from Dobudura, New Guinea, on a cargo flight to Hollandia with three passengers aboard, including Sasko. Forty minutes into the flight the crew radioed a request for weather information. Another pilot in the area replied that the weather was bad, saying he was headed out to sea to avoid it. After that, there was no further contact with the Cameron crew. Search teams in the area from the Royal Australian Air Force were unsuccessful in finding the crash site.

    In 1979 and 1980, search and recovery teams from the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) found the site and recovered remains subsequently identified by CILHI scientists as those of 2nd Lt. Stanley D. Campbell of Pioche, Nev., and Cpl. Carl A. Drain, hometown unknown.

    http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2006/nr20060608-13208.html
     
  2. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    If you examine the regimental casualty rates and names, you will find huge numbers of casualties with MIA (Missing in action) against their names.

    That prompts the question? what happens that is so savage that men vanish from the face of the earth? The fact is, they do just that.

    But then, I can answer my own question. for in several instances the battles had become so fierce, that men did vanish. We lost men MIA at the Chateau de la Londe in Normandy. and a large group of men that vanished completely at Overloon in Holland. many of them good friends.

    The MIA rates reveal one thing very starkly.The absolute savagery of the war in Normandy.

    By the way the British army artillery have name for their barrages. The biggest and best is a colosall barrage by the name of "Pandimonium"

    That barrage is so huge that it required that the permission of the House of Parliament, The sheer cost affected the countries balance of trade payments.
    Sapper
     
  3. kfz

    kfz Very Senior Member

    Ive read about it a few times, Just finished 'BY Tank Into Normandy' by Stuart Hills and in there a fellow officer hust goes missing, just obliterated I think he says, Its hits him quite hard that in the next moment you can be gone and I mean gone. I think he found his watch some time later.

    Kev
     
  4. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    After 62 years the families finally get their loved ones remains home.
    Must be an emotional time for them.
    RIP Lads.
     
  5. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    It is quite heartwarming to see nations still prepared to honour those who paid the ultimate price, by being welcomed to rest in home soil.
     
  6. SSGMike.Ivy

    SSGMike.Ivy Senior Member

    Our greatest generation of warriors is getting smaller and smaller by the day. WWII was the last great war that we shall ever have to fight as such, with the way things are going today, fighting inidviduals not nations.
    Never a day goes by if I pass a WWII Veteran that I do not extend my hand and say " Thank You"
     
  7. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Thanks for flagging that up - very interesting. There was a Timewatch doco about the work of this group shown here in the UK earlier this year relating to a WW1 soldier who was identified. The sort of work carried out is in great contrast to the work done by MOD in respect of British servicemen, sadly.
     
  8. Paul Johnson

    Paul Johnson Member

    The DPMO are to be congratulated on their fine work. Long may it continue, as there are still many more "missing" men to be found. The MOD and our government should take note of what can, and should, be achieved. I don't want to go off on a tangent but there are many "quangos" that need to be disbanded and the funding used for more important work, such as this.

    Regards

    PAUL J
     

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