Another Returns
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US airman.
From World War II
• 2nd Lt. John D. Mumford, 318th Fighter Squadron, 325th Fighter Group, 15th Air Force, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in the Ukraine on 6 June 1944. He was accounted for on 17 January 2017.
Welcome back, elder brother-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
You’re home now. Rest in peace.
. . .
Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.
On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.
If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.
Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.
Category: No Longer Missing
This report probably caused some of us to say. “The Ukraine? Is that a mistake?” No, it isn’t. The establishment of three US bases in the USSR in 1944 was part of Operation Frantic (originally, Operation Baseball) that were first proposed by FDR to Stalin in Tehran in 1943. The operation was cut short after only four months when the lightly manned bases were hit hard and many aircraft destroyed on the ground.
Mumford was a Mustang pilot and was escorting a flight of B-17s returning from a bombing mission to Romania when they were engaged by German fighters. He was last seen being pursued by some number of German fighters. The date was June 6, 1944.
John D. Mumford, his parents, Anson and Mildred, and his little brother moved from their home in Dunkirk New York to St. Petersburg Florida sometime between the 1930 and 1940 census. The NY home was built in 1902 and still stands today. John’s father was a mason and John was learning the trade, working as a bricklayer, in 1940 when he was 18. Several years later, he would be flying a Mustang in aerial combat in the Ukraine against the German. He was lost on D-Day, far from the shores of Normandy. His mortal remains, now been positively identified, can now be returned to home soil, where they belong.
Thanks again for the info you provide on these cases. I appreciate it.
Hondo, in case I have not said so lately, just want you to know how much your efforts to keep us informed of these stories is appreciated. You are doing a fine job, and deserve our thinks for it.
Thank you.
Welcome home, Brother.
Welcome Home
Welcome home, rest in peace.