Seven More Return
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US personnel.
From World War II
S1c William G. Bruesewitz, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 28 March 2018.
S1c Walter C. Foley, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 27 March 2018.
S1c Robert V. Young, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 28 March 2018.
S2c Bernard V. Doyle, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 27 March 2018.
SSgt. Percy C. Mathews, US Army, assigned to 422nd Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th U.S. Air Force, US Army Air Forces, was lost in France on 29 May 1943. He was accounted for on 28 March 2018.
From Korea
CPL Thomas W. Reagan, US Army, assigned to A Company, 14th Engineer Combat Battalion, 24th Infantry Division, was lost in South Korea on 12 August 1950. He was accounted for on 3 April 2018.
From Southeast Asia
SSG Marshall F. Kipina, US Army, assigned to the 131st Aviation Company, was lost in Laos on 13 July 1966. He was accounted for on 28 March 2018.
Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
Rest easy. 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.
Category: No Longer Missing
“SSG Marshall F. Kipina”
Listed as SSGT in my book of wall names.
Calumet MI.
Laos. Glad to see another returned.
Welcome Home.
OV-1C Mohawk #61-2675 (Call Sign: Iron Spud) 131st Avn Co departed Phu Bai with Pilot CPT Robert G. Nopp and Observer PFC Marshall F. Kipina as the crew on a night mission to Laos.
The weather was bad and the mountains of Laos are unforgiving. They never returned to home station.
Robert G. Nopp was accounted for by the DPAA on 28 Feb 2018. Now his crew mate has also returned.
Rest in Peace to both and Welcome Home.
Slight correction.
CPT/LTC Robert G. Nopp was accounted for on 2 Feb 2018.
The official announcement wasn’t made until 28 Feb 2018.
Mea Culpa
Welcome home Brothers. Rest in peace in your home soil. God be with your families.
The fight in which CPL Thomas W. Reagan was later reported to be MIA was prolonged and ferocious. When his unit of engineers was turned into infantry, the situation was all ready critical. Cooks, pencil pushers, drivers and anyone who could walk was now a grunt. The small force of engineers, numbering about 100, were further weakened by being separated into four unequal groups and deployed at 800 yard intervals along a road. The enemy struck first with snipers, and then in force. The engineers fought like hell against a much more numerous and organized enemy that came from seemingly everywhere. They bought much-needed time with their lives to allow others to escape the murderous fire. And CPL Thomas W. Reagan was among them. Welcome home.
Welcome home, men.
Rest well.
In 1943, the Saint-Nazaire submarine base was a regular target of the 8th Air Force, 305th Bombardment Group. Percy Clayton Mathews was the right waist gunner on a B-17 when that target was again hit by the “Can Do” group in daylight 29 May. Flak over the U-Boat pens was thick and accurate that Saturday afternnon, and German fighters hounded the bombers. Mathews’ bomber was hit severely and the crew was ordered to bail out. As Mathews was getting his chute on, a fighter attacked the stricken bomber and he was hit. All but Mathews escaped with their lives, with some added by Frenchmen and others taken prisoner. His remains were located in Brittony American Cemetery in St. James, France.
Percy Clayton Mathews, an Alabaman, was 24 or 25 and married. Welcome home, sergeant.
The sailors named above were killed when their ship, the USS Oklahoma, was attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor. This comment is not about those men or the 426 who perished with them: it’s about their ship. It had been stripped of its war armaments and ultimately auctioned for scrap. The winning bidder was Moore Drydock of Oakland, CA and on 2 May 1947 two ocean tugs began towing the unmanned Oklahoma remains from Pearl into the vast Pacific. A day out and the Oklahoma began listing. The tug crews struggled and notified the Coast Guard of their situation. The tugs were advised to return, but the Oklahoma wanted none of it. She pulled out the tugs’ tow lines and some 500 miles out from Pearl, dropped below the surface forever. There are two theories as to what happened. The first is that the weldings on the steel patches gave way after more than six years. The other is simply that she wanted to rejoin her crew. I am certain I know which theory is correct.