The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen and one civilian, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Capt. Lewis J. Geerlings, 36, Freemont, Mich.; 1st Lt. Ray F. Fletcher, 27, Westboro, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Edwin Elliott, 24, Mattoon, Ill.; Cpl. Richard H. Loring, 31, New York; and American Red Cross civilian Carolyn Chapin. The remains representing the entire group will be buried in a single casket today in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

On May 10, 1944, the five were aboard a B-25C Mitchell bomber which took off from Ajaccio, Corsica, on a courier mission to Ghisonaccia, Corsica. They failed to reach the destination and were officially reported missing on May 13, 1944. Two days later French police reported finding aircraft wreckage on the island’s Mount Cagna.

The U.S. Army’s Graves Registration Command visited the crash site in 1944 and reported remains were not recoverable.

In May 1989, Corsican authorities notified U.S. Army Memorial Affairs Activity-Europe that they had found wreckage of an American WWII-era aircraft and turned over human remains collected at the mountainous location. They sent a survey team to the site and determined the terrain was too rugged to support a recovery effort. In 2003 and 2004, two French nationals provided U.S. authorities crew-related equipment recovered from the crash site.

A team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated the location in September 2005 and recovered additional human remains as well as more crew-related equipment.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA–which matched that of some of the crewmembers’ families–in the identification of the remains.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died. At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 74,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1420.

On July 9, 2010, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) accounted for First Lieutenant Ray F. Fletcher, missing from World War II.

First Lieutenant Fletcher, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Massachusetts, was a member of Headquarters Squadron, 57th Bombardment Wing. On May 10, 1944, he was the pilot and one of five flying aboard a B-25C Mitchell (serial number 42-53371) when it took off from Ajaccio, Corsica, on a courier mission to Ghisonaccia, Corsica. The aircraft failed to reach its destination and was officially reported missing on May 13. Two days later, French police reported finding the aircraft's burned wreckage on the island’s Mount Cagna. U.S. Army’s Graves Registration Command personnel traveled to the crash site but reported that no remains were recoverable, and 1LT Fletcher was not recovered at the time. In 1989, Corsican authorities notified U.S. Army Memorial Affairs Activity-Europe that they located an American WWII-era aircraft's wreckage at a mountainous location, and also turned over human remains collected from the wreckage site. An AGRC survey team traveled to the site but determined the terrain was too rugged to support a recovery effort. In 2003 and 2004, two French nationals provided U.S. authorities crew-related equipment recovered from the crash site. In 2005, a JPAC team excavated the site and recovered additional human remains as well as more crew-related equipment. JPAC and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory analysts used modern forensic techniques to eventually identify 1LT Fletcher from among these collective remains.

First Lieutenant Fletcher is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy.

Ray F B Fletcher