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Airmen's Remains To Be Returned, Buried

By KEN THOMAS, The Associated Press

Published: October 12, 2007

WASHINGTON - The remains of nine U.S. airmen, missing in action since a World War II mission over Germany, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial, the Pentagon said Thursday.

'It's sort of a closure that I didn't know I was going to have,' said Wayne Wells, 63, the son of one of the airmen, 2nd Lt. Millard C. Wells Jr. of Paris, Ky. 'I never figured there would ever be any body or any parts.'

'It restores our faith in government procedures to find out they are actually pursuing these men that were lost and returning them and giving the survivors notice. It brings closure,' said Martin Casey, 83, of Vergennes, Vt., a friend of Staff Sgt. Robert L. Cotey, one of the nine.

The men were aboard a B-24J Liberator on a mission to bomb an aircraft factory near Bernburg, Germany. The plane, which departed from North Pickenham, England, was last seen by U.S. air crew members in that area. Captured records showed that it crashed near Westeregeln, about 20 miles northwest of the target, the Defense Department said.

A group of German citizens learned of a potential crash site south of Westeregeln in 2001.

Later that year and in early 2002 they uncovered human remains from what appeared to be two burial locations, the Pentagon said.

In addition to Wells and Cotey, the airmen were identified as:

•1st Lt. David P. McMurray of Melrose, Mass.

•1st Lt. Raymond Pascual of Houston.

•Tech Sgt. Leonard J. Ray of Upper Falls, Md.

•Tech Sgt. Hyman L. Stiglitz of Boston.

•Staff Sgt. Francis E. Larrivee of Laconia, N.H.

•Staff Sgt. Robert J. Flood of Neelyton, Pa.

•Staff Sgt. Walter O. Schlosser of Lake City, Mich.

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