Remains of WWII airman from Tennessee identified 80 years after plane shot down

The stays of a World Struggle II airman had been recognized 80 years after his airplane was shot down throughout a bombing mission in Germany, navy officers stated this week.

Within the spring of 1944, U.S. Military Air Power Tech. Sgt. Sanford G. Roy, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron within the European Theater, in response to a news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Roy and several other different airmen had been aboard the B-24H Liberator “Little Joe” on a bombing mission to Brunswick, Germany on April 8. The airplane was shot down by German forces and different airmen flying close to the plane didn’t report seeing any crew members exiting “Little Joe” earlier than it crashed. His title was engraved on the Partitions of the Lacking on the Netherlands American Cemetery. 

Although navy members noticed the incident, the crash website couldn’t be positioned in the course of the conflict. The stays of Roy and eight different crew members had been listed as unaccounted for after the conflict. In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command started investigating bomber losses just like the one which Roy died in within the area. These efforts nonetheless failed to seek out any crash or burial websites related to the crew of Little Joe. 

An impartial analysis group lastly shed new perception into the crash in 2015. The Lacking Allied Air Crew Analysis Group contacted historians from the DPAA to tell them of a attainable crash website close to Wistedt, Germany. The DPAA performed interviews with native residents, which led to the conclusion that there had been two crash websites, however just one had been examined and had stays recovered from it in the course of the conflict. 

DPAA investigators discovered the second crash website and recovered varied items of wreckage and attainable human stays. These stays had been transferred to the DPAA’s laboratory, however no identifications might be made. Between 2021 and 2023, the company performed extra analysis on the crash website, together with excavation and restoration of extra stays. By the tip of November 2023, all proof from the crash website had been transferred to the DPAA laboratory. 

Scientists used anthropological and dental evaluation, in addition to DNA evaluation, to establish the stays. One set of stays from the crash website had been recognized as these of Staff Sergeant Ralph L. Mourer. One other set of stays was recognized as Roy’s. 

Roy’s surviving household has been knowledgeable of his identification. He shall be buried in his hometown on April 8, 2025, the 81st anniversary of his loss. A rosette has been carved subsequent to his title on the Partitions of the Lacking to point that he has been recognized.