Press Release | Jan. 22, 2020

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Middleton, H.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pvt. Horace H. Middleton, 20, of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Oct. 31, 2019.

In the spring and summer of 1944, Middleton, an infantryman, was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), also known as Merrill’s Marauders. After taking the airfield in Myitkyina, Burma, from the Japanese on May 17, Middleton’s battalion was tasked with holding the airfield and taking part in the siege of Myitkyina. Middleton was reported to have been killed during fighting on July 12.

The remains of servicemen killed during the battle were buried in at least eight different temporary cemeteries and numerous isolated burial locations. Eventually, all known burials were concentrated into the U.S. Military Cemetery at Myitkyina, including the remains of those who were not identified. In January and February 1946, all of the remains at the U.S. Military Cemetery were disinterred and transferred to the U.S. Military Cemetery at Kalaikunda, India. The exhumation of the U.S. Military Cemetery at Kalaikunda was conducted in September and October 1947.

One set of remains, designated Unknown X-63 Kalaikunda, was unable to be identified and was subsequently buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, in March 1949.

On Sept. 17, 2018, DPAA disinterred Unknown X-63 Kalaikunda from the Punchbowl and accessioned the remains into the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

To identify Middleton’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Middleton’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Taguig City, Philippines, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this recovery.

Middleton will be buried April 18, 2020, in Milton, Pennsylvania.

For family and funeral information, call the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Press Release | Jan. 16, 2020

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Brown, R.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pvt. Roy Brown, Jr., 22, of Des Moines, Iowa, killed during World War II, was accounted for on May 13, 2019.

On Dec. 2, 1942, Brown was a member of Company I, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division, when his unit was forced into intense engagement with Japanese forces in the vicinity of Soputa-Sanananda Track in the Australian Territory of Papua (present-day Papua New Guinea). Brown was reported missing and presumed dead when he could not be accounted for by his unit.

On Feb. 2, 1943, the remains of an unidentified American Soldier were interred at the U.S. Temporary Cemetery Sanananda #2. On April 6, 1943, the remains, designated Unknown X-72 were reinterred at Temporary Cemetery #1 at Soputa, then moved them to U.S. Armed Forces Finschhafen #2, where they were redesignated X-1086.

In 1947, the American Graves Registration service exhumed approximately 11,000 graves, including X-1086, and sent the remains to the Central Identification Point at the Manila Mausoleum in the Philippines. X-1086 could not be identified and were interred at Fort McKinley (now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial).

In May 2017, Unknown X-1086 was disinterred, and the remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory in Offutt, Nebraska, for analysis.

To identify Brown’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Brown’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, an American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) site along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

DPAA is grateful to the ABMC for their partnership in this mission.

Brown will be buried in his hometown. The date has yet to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420.

Press Release | Jan. 16, 2020

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Brown, W.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Cpl. William L. Brown, 18, of Sesser, Illinois, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Oct. 17, 2019.

In late 1950, Brown was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action Dec. 2, 1950, in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces. Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered.

On July 27, 2018, following the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018, North Korea turned over 55 boxes, purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War. The remains arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii on Aug. 1, 2018, and were subsequently accessioned into the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Brown’s remains, scientists from DPAA used circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Brown’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Brown will be buried in Mound City, Illinois. The date has yet to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty office at (800) 892-2490.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Press Release | Jan. 13, 2020

Pilot Accounted For From World War II (Twedt, L.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Lowell S. Twedt, 27, of Le Grand, Iowa, killed during World War II, was accounted for Dec. 11, 2019.

(This identification was initially published Dec. 13, 2019.)

In the fall of 1944, Twedt was a pilot assigned to the 71st Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group. On Oct. 20, he piloted a P-38J “Lightning” aircraft as part of an escort for a B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombing mission targeting oil storage tanks in Regensburg, Germany. The mission encountered enemy anti-aircraft fire around Bolzano, Italy. Three P-38Js, including Twedt’s, went down as a result. An eyewitness account saw Twedt’s aircraft falling to the ground in flames, and did not see him eject. Twedt’s remains were never recovered.

In 2017, Roland Domanig, a retired physics professor from Austria who had helped DPAA in the past, contacted the agency with news that he had found wreckage of a P-38 he believed to be Twedt’s. Over the course of the next two years, DPAA investigated and excavated the site, recovering remains in September 2019 that were sent to the DPAA laboratory in Offutt, Nebraska, for identification.

To identify Twedt’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence.

DPAA is grateful to Roland Domanig, Armin and Lena Kanetscheider, the Italian Carabinieri, the mayor and local government of Sarentino, Italy, and the U.S. Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,643 still unaccounted for from World War II with approximately 30,000 assessed as possibly recoverable. Twedt’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For family contact information, contact the Army Service Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Twedt will be buried in Fernly, Nevada. The date has yet to be determined. For future funeral information, visit www.dpaa.mil.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Press Release | Jan. 10, 2020

Marine Accounted For From World War II (Wiesehan, L.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Marine Corps Pfc. Louis Wiesehan, Jr., 20, of Richmond, Indiana, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Sep. 23, 2019.

(This identification was initially published Oct. 1, 2019.)

In November 1943, Wiesehan was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands in an attempt to secure the island. Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Wiesehan was killed on the second day of the battle, Nov. 21, 1943. His remains were reportedly buried in Division Cemetery on Betio Island.

In 1946, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company centralized all of the American remains found on Tarawa at Lone Palm Cemetery for later repatriation; however, almost half of the known casualties were never found. No recovered remains could be associated with Wiesehan, and in October 1949, a Board of Review declared him “non-recoverable.”

In 2014, History Flight, Inc., a nonprofit organization, located Cemetery 27. Excavations of the site uncovered multiple sets of remains, which were turned over to DPAA in 2015.

To identify Wiesehan’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
DPAA is grateful to the United States Marine Corps for their assistance in this mission. Additionally, DPAA is appreciative to History Flight, Inc., for their partnership in this mission.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,639 service members still unaccounted for from World War II with approximately 30,000 assessed as possibly recoverable. Wiesehan’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others killed or lost in WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For family information, contact the Marine Corps Service Casualty office at (800) 847-1597.

Wiesehan will be buried April 18, 2020, in his hometown.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420/1169.