Remains found on sunken bomber in Adriatic
RGR 4-78 sends us a link from MSN which tells the story of Tulsamerican, a B-25 bomber that went down in the Adriatic Sea in 1944 with it’s ten crew members. Seven were rescued, but three remained missing. They are Lieutenant Eugene Ford, Sergeant Charles Priest, and First Lieutenant Russell Landry. But DPAA has found the aircraft and there may be remains in the wreckage;
According to the report by Live Science, the team collected any material that looked like a bone. The report also stated that DNA analysis of the retrieved bone will be done to try and link any remains to those who went missing so they could receive proper burials. The divers also brought equipment and a clothing to the surface that could be related to the servicemen. They also brought several tons of soil that might contain smaller artifacts.
The mission was coordinated by the U.S. military’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which is an agency launched by the United States Department of Defense.
The article says that the DPAA is working with Project Recover and their website has stories of other recent successful recoveries of remains around the world.
Category: We Remember
These people are doing yeoman’s work with this.
Many thanks to the DPAA.
Awesome undersea filming footage at the “Project Recover” website of the recovered B25.
A well deserved “THANK YOU” to the men & women of Project Recover in locating our older brothers-in-arms.
Thanks Jonn, for this posting.
Find ’em…..bring ’em home.
—Captain Hamil (paraphrase) Saving Private Ryan
Thank you to those who continue to bring our Brothers home.
Thanks Jonn.
Are they sure it was a B-25? They usually ran with a 5- or 6-man crew. 10 would be standard with a B-17 or B-24.
A 2-minute google search reveals that MSN’s research sucks. The aircraft in question was not a B-25 Mitchell twin-engine medium bomber.
Tulsamerican was a B-24J Liberator four-engine heavy bomber assigned to the 765th Bombardment Squadron, 461st Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force, operating out of Torretto, Italy. She was the last B-24 built at Tulsa, Oklahoma before the assembly line converted to the B-32 Dominator. The 461st remains active today as the 461st Air Control Wing. Their heritage website is located here: http://www.461st.org/
Thanks for that info – I was wondering about the # of crewmembers for a B-25…
I’m in no way disparaging our war dead when I say this, but I want you to consider something here. We have the man power to find and retrieve remains from the depths of the ocean, and the lab space and personnel to do the DNA testing to identify them — yet my state just shipped hundreds of rape kits, some from as far back as the 1980’s, out of state to finally get them processed. I guess my question here is, are we actually identifying these remains, or are we cleaning out old closets by matching up unidentified remains with military “cold” files? Is the testing being done by independent labs? With what appears to be limited availability and resources, shouldn’t the current living come before the long dead?
That, you should ask your state legislator about and attorney general and every other elected official.
Very well done! RIP!
I am a little confused here. According to Wikipedia the B25 had a six man crew not ten. General characteristics
Crew: 6 (one pilot, one co-pilot, navigator/bombardier, turret gunner/engineer, radio operator/waist gunner, tail gunner)