WWII Soldiers Remains Head Home

WWII Soldier's Remains to Head to Texas

EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) -- More than 60 years after his plane disappeared during World War II on a mission to raid a Japanese base, an Army Air Corps soldier's remains are coming home.

First Lt. James Walter Carver will be buried with full military honors Saturday at the foot of his mother's grave in Eagle Pass, the family said.

Carver's remains were identified through DNA testing using a blood sample taken from his niece, Kathryn Cunningham, whose mother, June Carver Hansen, 86, is Carver's only remaining sibling.

"When I told her he'd been found, my mom had a look of pure joy," said Cunningham. "None of us ever expected it."

A navigator, Carver had just turned 22 when his plane disappeared while en route to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, after a night raid on a key Japanese base. Seven other men were on board.

Carver's parents received a telegram in November 1942 telling them their son was missing in action. "They always said they were hopeful that maybe he was in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp," Cunningham said.

A villager searching for beetle nuts in Papua New Guinea discovered the wreckage of the American bomber plane in 1998. The next year, a recovery team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command took custody of the remains and artifacts found near the crash site, including Carver's dog tags, navigation kit and cigarette lighter.

Carver had been a sophomore majoring in petroleum engineering at Texas A&I College in Kingsville, now Texas A&M University-Kingsville, when he joined the Army Air Corps in January 1942.

Carver, who was promoted to first lieutenant and awarded the Purple Heart while missing in action, flew 19 missions before he was killed.