2LT John Donald Mumford comes home

Hondo told us back in January that 2LT John Donald Mumford’s earthly remains were identified in a faraway field in what was Traianu, Romania (now Novi Troyany, Ukraine). On June 6, 1944, he was escorting a flight of B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombers of the 5th Bombardment Wing on their mission to bomb and destroy a German occupied airfield at Galati, Romania when he was caught in a hail of gunfire from German fighters. Mumford was last seen by fellow pilots in pursuit of two German fighters. Later, villagers of Novotroyan- present day Novi Troyany- Ukraine, observed two aircraft with U.S. markings pursued by several German aircraft. One of the U.S. aircraft crashed in a nearby field.

Tampa Bay Times reports that he will finally make it home from war;

It never occurred to the brothers that anyone was looking for their uncle, let alone that they would actually find him after so many decades. “I thought it was a scam,” said Lynn Woolums, 67, who like his brother still lives in St. Petersburg. “I was like, ‘Really?’ It was too good to be true.”

But it was true. And thanks to the Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency, or DPAA, a unit of the military dedicated to finding missing troops, Ronald and Lynn Woolums are preparing for an unexpected visitor.

Mumford’s remains are scheduled to arrive Wednesday night at Tampa International Airport.

Now the brothers’ heads are filled with thoughts of their uncle and his last frantic moments zooming through the skies of Eastern Europe, chased by machine-gun blasting Nazi warplanes.

“This is rather overwhelming,” said Lynn Woolums, a retired advertising agency owner.

“This is unbelievable, really,” said Ronald Woolums, 68, a retired teacher.

[…]

Wednesday night, the hard work put in by people they never met to solve a mystery they knew little about will pay off for the brothers in the return of their uncle’s remains. The remains will undergo a dignified transfer ceremony before heading to the Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home in St. Petersburg. No date has been set for a service or interment of the cremains, which will take place at the Bay Pines National Veterans Cemetery.

“I’m kind of anxious about it,” Lynn Woolums said about the ceremony.

“Me too,” said his brother. “I don’t know how I’ll react.”

While the brothers say the return of their uncle will bring about a sense of closure, there’s something deeper about what happened, they say.

“It is very important that everyone knows that there are people who are still looking for remains,” Lynn Woolums said.

Thanks to Wilted Willy for the tip.

Category: We Remember