Four More Accounted For

Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency

 

Airman Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Air Forces Flight Officer Chester L. Rinke

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Flight Officer Chester L. Rinke, 33, of Marquette, Michigan, killed during World War II, was accounted for May 5, 2023.

In the summer of 1944, Rinke was assigned to the 678th Bombardment Squadron, 444th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 58th Bombardment Wing, Twentieth Bomber Command. On June 26, Rinke while serving as the flight officer on the B-29 Superfortress crashed into a rice paddy in the village of Sapekhati, India after a bombing raid on Imperial iron and steel works at Yawata, Kyushu Island, Japan. All 11 crew members were killed instantly in the crash.

On June 28, 1944 a team from 342nd Service Squadron, 329th Service Group visited the crash site recovering and identifying only seven sets of remains which were interred at in United States Military Cemetery in Panitola, Assam, India and subsequently disinterred and sent to their final internment on Jan. 13, 1948. By September of that same year, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) concluded that Rinke’s remains were non-recoverable.

In October 2014 the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (a DPAA predecessor organization) conducted a Joint Field Activity in Sapekhati, which led to the location of the crash site and the recovery of life support equipment and wreckage associated with the B29 aircraft. In 2018 and 2019, Southeastern Archaeological Research (SEARCH) a DPAA partner organization excavated the site and recovered possible osseous remains and material evidence.

To identify Rinke’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis as well as material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), analysis.

Rinke will be buried at Seville, Ohio, on a date to be determined.

Airman Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Charles G. Reynolds

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Charles G. Reynolds, 24, of Bridgeport, Ohio, killed during World War II, was accounted for July 18, 2023.

In late 1943, Reynolds was a pilot assigned to the 498th Bombardment Squadron, 345th Bombardment Group, in the Southwest Pacific Theater. On November 27, the B-25D Mitchell which Reynolds was a crewmember of, did not return from its bombing mission near Wewak, New Guinea. The aircraft had sustained heavy damage from anti-aircraft fire and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in the waters of Karau Lagoon, in the Murik Lakes. Efforts to recover Reynolds’s remains were unsuccessful, and the crew was labeled Missing In Action.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service, the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, conducted exhaustive searches of battle areas and crash sites in New Guinea, concluding their search in late 1948. Investigators recovered fragmentary sets of human remains near Murik, as well as wreckage that was identified as belonging to a B-25 Mitchell. The remains, designated X-4180 and X-4196, were consolidated and declared unidentifiable, and were interred at Fort McKinley Cemetery in Manila.

In 2019 a recovery team working near Murik found possible material evidence, which prompted historians and forensic anthropologists within DPAA to propose the disinterment of X-4180. By January 8, 2020, X-4180 was exhumed and sent to the DPAA Laboratory for identification.

To identify Reynolds’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Reynolds’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the Philippines, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Reynolds will be buried in Bridgeport, Ohio, on a date to be determined.

Airman Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Turner Y. Johnston

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Turner Y. Johnston, 21, of Loraine, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for April 25, 2023.

In the summer of 1943, Johnston was assigned to the 415th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Johnston was an engineer-gunner was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.

In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

To identify Johnston’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Johnston’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Johnston was buried in Belton, Texas, on Oct. 21, 2023.

Airman Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Air Forces 2^nd Lt. Albert W. Stahl

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 2^nd Lt. Albert W. Stahl, 22, of Buffalo, New York, killed during World War II, was accounted for March 30, 2023.

In the summer of 1943, Stahl was assigned to the 329th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93d Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Stahl was the navigator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.

In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

To identify Stahl’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Stahl’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Stahl will be buried in Kenmore, New York, in the Spring of 2024.

 

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission and to the U.S. Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

 

Category: No Longer Missing