No Longer Missing – Unintentional Omissions
I ended up with a bit of extra time while traveling, so I decided to “bite the bullet” and do a reconciliation between personnel announced by DPAA on their web site as having been accounted for during 2017 and what I’ve previously noted here at TAH.
It appears as if DPAA has indeed resumed “slipstreaming” delayed public announcements into their online listings. When they do this, the name is simply placed in the list – and the default order is those most recently accounted for are listed first. It’s thus damned difficult to catch slipstreamed entries.
I’d hoped DPAA had ceased doing this, as it rather complicates the task of publicizing those recently accounted for by DPAA on this site. Oh well; as the song goes, “You can’t always get what you want.”
`
Without further ado: DPAA has previously this year identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US personnel. These individuals have not been listed in a prior “No Longer Missing” article this year.
From World War II
• 2nd Lt Harry H. Gaver, Jr., USMC, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 1 March 2017.
• Cpl Raymond A. Barker, Company C, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 20 November 1943. He was accounted for on 10 October 2017.
• Pfc Francis E. Drake, Jr., Company C, 1st Battalion, 7th Mainres, 1st Marine Division, USMC, was lost in the Solomon Islands on 9 September 1942. He was accounted for on 6 April 2017.
• Pfc Ray James, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 20 November 1943. He was accounted for on 13 June 2017.
• Pfc Manuel Menendez, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division (see note), USMC, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 20 November 1943. He was accounted for on 30 August 2017.
• Pfc Harold V. Thomas, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 20 November 1943. He was accounted for on 31 August 2017.
• Pvt Archie Newell, Company C, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 20 November 1943. He was accounted for on 12 June 2017.
• Assistant Cook Frank L. Masoni, Headquarters Company, 2nd (see note), USMC, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 21 November 1943. He was accounted for on 29 August 2017.
• TSgt. John S. Bailey, 38th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 30th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost on Tarawa Atoll on 21 January 1944. He was accounted for on 22 September 2017.
• 1st Lt. John H. Liekhus, 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in Germany on 2 November 1944. He was accounted for on 7 August 2017.
• TSgt. John F. Brady, 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in Germany on 2 November 1944. He was accounted for on 31 August 2017.
• TSgt. Allen A. Chandler, Jr., 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in Germany on 2 November 1944. He was accounted for on 25 August 2017.
• SSgt. Robert O. Shoemaker, 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in Germany on 2 November 1944. He was accounted for on 24 August 2017.
• SSgt. Bobby J. Younger, 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in Germany on 2 November 1944. He was accounted for on 17 August 2017.
• SSgt. Thomas M. McGraw, 716th Bomber Squadron, 449th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in Italy on 28 February 1945. He was accounted for on 18 August 2017.
From Korea
• PFC James J. Leonard, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, US Army, was lost in South Korea on 25 July 1950. He was accounted for on 18 August 2017.
• SFC Lester R. Walker, Battery B, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in South Korea on 3 September 1950. He was accounted for on 29 September 2017.
• SFC Elmore B. Goodwin, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in North Korea on 27 November 1950. He was accounted for on 29 August 2017.
• SFC Alfred G. Bensinger, Jr., Company D, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in North Korea on 1 December 1950. He was accounted for on 25 July 2017.
• SSG Gerald J. Mueller, Battery D, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (Automatic Weapons,) 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in South Korea on 13 February 1951. He was accounted for on 4 August 2017.
From Southeast Asia
• None
Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
Rest in peace. You’re home now.
. . .
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.
Author’s Notes:
1. Two of the unit designations above appear incomplete, and are so identified. These suspect unit designations are those that were published by DPAA.
2. While Jonn published an article announcing the recovery of SSG William Turner’s remains some time ago, as of 23 October 2017 DPAA has yet to formally announce his accounting.
Category: No Longer Missing
Hondo, not picking nits, but am thinking that the Bobby J. Younger listed in the From World War II section is somehow a double entry.
RIP to all listed.
Correct, and now corrected above. The 1st Lt entry should have been for John H. Liekhus; as Civilwarrior notes below, he was the bird’s pilot.
My apologies for the error.
Semper Fidelis, My two brothers from C Co, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division. I had the honor of serving in the company you two gentlemen helped create on three separate tours, and retired there as the company First sergeant.
And that is why it is important to remember our brothers and sisters in arms. And also why it is important to tell these stories. I look forward to a day when the POW/MIA flag can be taken down for good, when it can truly be said that all are accounted for.
What a day… don’t think I will be alive to see that happen, but hope it does. Till they are all home or buried in American Soil. Were POWs Abandoned? by: SRO Ted Guy (RIP Col.) Until 1990, I believed that all the POWs were released during Operation Homecoming in 1973. I maintained this belief until 1990. In fact, I gave many, many talks around the country about the POW issue. My closing remarks were always the same: “All the POWs are home that are coming home and the rest (MIAs) are dead”. You see, I firmly believed that my government would not lie to me. In early 1990, after talking to many family members of POWs and MIAs, I began having doubts. What followed was a thorough re-examination of the whole issue. The more I listened instead of talking, the more I read, then the more the odds swung towards the fact that YES, there were POWs left behind (abandoned) and YES, there was evidence that some might still be alive. Since that time I have spoken repeatedly of the need to learn the truth and my position has been published and/or quoted by the media. Hello fellow Internet surfer and welcome to The Hanoi Hilton. I’m very glad that you made it this far . . . and I hope that you’ll stick around long enough to get to know just a little bit more about the prison camps and some POW’s confined within. These days, acquaintances that begin in cyberspace are often the most real, vivid, and long-lasting – and maybe that will be true of us. I am a retired Air Force fighter jock, with over two hundred and fifty combat missions, both in Korea and Vietnam. On March 20, 1968, while on a mission in Southern Laos, I was zapped by the North Vietnamese Communists and became their guest in the various resorts in Laos and in and around Hanoi, North Vietnam. Apparently, I complained too much about the service, or lack thereof, and spent almost four of the next five years in solitary confinement.… Read more »
Rest in Peace, Brothers.
It’s great to see that many of the Marines, Sailors, and other servicemembers that were lost on Tarawa Atoll are now finally being accounted for, and we welcome them home at long last.
The fighting on Tarawa Atoll was some of the most savage of the Pacific campaign in WW2.
‘Tarawa: The Ultimate Opposed Landing’
https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/tarawa-ultimate-opposed-landing
‘Amphibious warfare came of age in the forceful seizure of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, by U.S. Marines during 20-24 November 1943-50 years ago.
Few battles have ever matched Tarawa’s concentrated violence at point-blank range in such a compressed period of time. Six thousand Japanese and Americans were killed in 76 hours within an area smaller than New York’s Central Park. The Tarawa assault had a significant impact on American strategy in the Pacific, the national psyche, and the institution known as the Navy-Marine Corps team. Some of Tarawa’s legacies, both positive and negative, persist today.
[…].’
Rest easy, brothers.
I think what you are doing Hondo in publishing this is not only commendable but very important and I would like to see it go into syndication by something like the Military Times so it can reach a wider audience.
I know zip about publishing and I am sure you and Jonn have thought about it but I suspect it could be a reliable income stream for this site.
Some of the stories behind these men must be incredible. A Marine 2LT as part of the Oklahoma MarDet, SFCs lost in Korea who must have also served in WWII, an Asst Cook lost on Betio…..
Team TAH,
Please excuse my ignorance on this question. What happens when they make a positive identification? Do they try to find next of kin? How far do they search for those family members? Just wondering as some of these troops are WWII and Korea conflicts making any immediate family very old or deceased.
Thanks
If you follow the stories until the ymention the remains being bought home they pretty much always mention a Next Of Kin.
Since so many years have passed its usually a distant niece or nephew. Most of the time the NOK only heard passing stories about the service member when they were younger.
Fair winds and following seas to one and all. Rest in Peace.
Salute to those brave Warriors who made the sacrifice.
Your families can now rest knowing you are home.
Bobby J. Younger is a double entry. He was a SSG, ball turret gunner on B-17G-45-BO, “Bomber,Dear”.
Lost on the November 2,1944 mission to Merseburg,Germany.Shot down by fighters.
1st Lt. John H. Liekhus – pilot (KIA)
2nd Lt. Robert C. Wisor – copilot (POW)
2nd Lt. Allen D. Young – navigator (KIA)
2nd Lt. Robert H. Sambo – bombardier (POW)
T/Sgt. John F. Brady – engineer/top turret gunner (KIA)
T/Sgt. Allen A. Chandler,Jr. – radio operator (KIA)
S/Sgt. Bobby J. Younger – ball turret gunner (KIA)
S/Sgt. Robert O. Shoemaker – waist gunner (KIA)
S/Sgt. Bruno D. Lombardi – tail gunner (POW)
Hondo, to echo the rest, from me, thank you for doing this so we can join in honoring these elder brothers one by one until they are all home.
Thank you for this. My grandfather was on a crew with 5 of these heroes- the crew of the Bomber Dear. He was Robert C Wisor. I only wish he had lived to see them be brought back home.