Remains of World War II flyers to be buried

[tombogan03884]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1316489&srvc=rss

Military officials say two Massachusetts airmen whose plane vanished during World War II will receive a military burial next month at Arlington National Cemetery.

The remains of Staff Sgt. James B. Moore of Woburn and Staff Sgt. Roy Surabian of Medford and nine other Army Air Force crew members were recovered from a jungle site where their plane went down.

Their last radio contact on Nov. 20, 1943, indicated their plane was about 20 miles northwest of Jackson Airfield in Port Moresby, New Guinea, where they were stationed.

A search a few years later for Moore, who was 21, and the 24-year-old Surabian turned up no evidence of their disappearance. New Guinea’s government told U.S. officials in 1984 it found plane wreckage and identities were verified in 2004.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be

[Timothy]

Always good news to hear of more of our boys coming home.

Thanks Tom...

Worked with an older fella some years back who lost a brother back in the 50's in some Soviet block shithole.  He was lost until after the fall of the Berlin wall when the Soviet block shithole released information regarding the crash.  Some remains were found and handed over to the Pentagon in the 90's sometime but none were of Henry's brother.  Years went by and sometime in 2004 or 2005, Henry started digging around and found the family of one of the airmen who had received remains.  He got the families permission to exhume and convinced the military brass to do another analysis of the bones.

Turns out some of the mixed remains were his brothers so he was able to give his 90 something mother some closure and had the full military burial at Arlington.

I got something in my eye when he was telling me the story..

[twyacht]

Verified in 2004?

Better late than never. They deserve every accolade, honor, and a chance to be laid to rest at Arlington. Give their families some peace, and Never Be Forgotten.

Rest In Peace Staff Sgt. James B. Moore and Staff Sgt. Roy Surabian.

Very humbled and thankful your finally home.

[alfsauve]

My curiosity is going to cause me to do some research on this.

Why are only these two men out of the 11 mentioned?  Who are the other nine?  Where are the officiers?  Generally speaking most pilots were  officers (not all, I know, don't fuss at me).  Just saying there's some more to this story.

[tombogan03884]

I don't know that this is the case, but they were the only 2 from Mass and it was a Boston paper.
The paper may not have listed the other names because of no local connection.
It doesn't say they were the pilots, as far as I know the Navy and Marines were the only ones with Enlisted pilots, left overs from the prewar "Flying Sgt's" program. (I'm not sure about the Navy, it may have been only the Marines )

[Sponsor]

[twyacht]

 Found this link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP6f2b067522fb4f3ab7be37f38944b4ec.html

Associated Press

BERKLEY, Mich. — The remains of a Michigan man and 10 other World War II airmen whose plane crashed in what now is Papua New Guinea have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The airmen include 1st Lt. Richard T. Heuss, 23, of Berkley, Mich. He and nine of the men will be buried as a group March 24 at Arlington National Cemetery.

A funeral is scheduled Friday at Arlington for Army Air Forces Technical Sgt. Charles A. Bode, 23, of Baltimore.

The crew's B-24D Liberator disappeared after taking off from Jackson Airfield in New Guinea on Nov. 20, 1943.

The others are 2nd Lt. Robert A. Miller, 22, of Memphis, Tenn.; 2nd Lt. Edward R. French, 23, of Erie, Pa.; 2nd Lt. Robert R. Streckenbach Jr., 21, of Green Bay, Wis.; Tech. Sgt. Lucian I. Oliver Jr., 23, of Memphis; Staff Sgt. Ivan O. Kirkpatrick, 36, of Whittier, Calif.; Staff Sgt. William K. Musgrave, 24, of Hutsonville, Ill.; Staff Sgt. James T. Moran, 21, of Sloatsburg, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. James B. Moore, 21, of Woburn, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Roy Surabian, 24, of Medford, Mass.

The government of Papua New Guinea notified U.S. officials in 1984 of a World War II crash site in a ravine in Morobe Province, the Defense Department said. A U.S. search team located B-24 wreckage and some human remains but couldn't complete the mission because of the dangerous terrain.

In 2004, local villagers turned over human remains they had previously removed from the area, the Pentagon said.