Today the Department of Defense announced that they’ve accounted for the remains of servicemembers who died in WWII and the Vietnam War. The remains of these heroes have been returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Officials say they found U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Henry S. White, 23, of Kansas City, Mo., and Staff Sgt. Thomas L. Meek, 19, of Lisbon, La. The two Marines, who were crew members of an SBD-4 Dauntless dive-bomber, went on a night training mission from Turtle Bay Airfield on Espiritu Santo Island, New Hebrides in 1943 and never returned. A JPAC team evacuated the crash site on Mavea Island, Republic of Vanuatu, and recovered the remains of White and Meek in 2012.
The DOD also identified the remains of an airman who also died during WWII. Officials say Army Air Force 1st Lt. Robert G. Fenstermacher, 23, of Scranton, Pa. crashed near Petergensfeld, Belgium in 1944 on a mission against targets in Germany.
Officials say they also accounted for two airmen from the Vietnam War. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert E. Pietsch, 31, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Maj. Louis F. Guillermin, 25, of West Chester, Pa. were on an armed-reconnaissance mission when their A-26A Invader aircraft crashed in Savannakhet Province, Laos in 1968.
