The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. Marine Corps Cpl. Wayne R. Erickson, 19, of Minneapolis, will be buried May 24, in Fort Worth, Texas. Erickson was a crewmember aboard a PBJ-1 aircraft that failed to return from a night training mission over the island of Espiritu Santo, in what is known today as Vanuatu. None of the crew was recovered and in 1945 they were officially presumed deceased. In 1994, a group of private citizens notified the U.S. that aircraft wreckage had been found on the island of Espiritu Santo. Human remains were recovered from the site at that time and turned over to the Department of Defense. http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/news/news_releases/2012/release_erickson.pdf http://www.vmb423.net/ The rest of the crew has also been identified but no press release as of yet for them; they are: 1st Lt. Laverne A. Lallathin 2nd Lt. Dwight D. Ekstam 2nd Lt. Walter B. Vincent Jr. Tech Sgt. James A. Sismay Cpl. John D. Yeager PFC John A. Donovan Semper Fi!
Found this in todays paper albeit a bit old ....ceremony was May 5th. Pictures Caption read:" Marines escort the casket of WWII Marine veteran Walter Vincent, of Tulsa, to his burial site at Memorial Park Cemetary in Tulsa on May 5. Vincent's remains were recovered recently from a South Pacific Island crash site and returned to Tulsa." RIP Lt. Vincent!!!
Gonna now add a bit about PFC Donovan to this thread...... Long-missing WWII Marine's remains brought home for burial | Fox News
