WASHINGTON, May 22, 2015 – The Department of Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency announced today that the remains of a missing World War II
U.S. serviceman have been identified and are being returned to his family for
burial with full military honors, according to a DoD news release.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Alvin Beethe of Elk Creek,
Nebraska, will be buried June 8 in Arlington National Cemetery, the release
said.
Beethe, of the 9th Air Force’s 393rd Fighter Squadron, 367th
Fighter Group, was the pilot of a P-38 Lightning aircraft that failed to return
from a bombing mission against enemy forces near Duren, Germany, Nov. 26, 1944.
Another U.S. aircraft on the same mission reported that
Beethe’s aircraft crashed near the town of Morschenich, located about 45 miles
south of Dusseldorf. Beethe was reported killed in action and his remains were
not recovered.
Location of Crash Site
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command
conducted investigations on the loss of Beethe and successfully located his
crash site. However, no remains were recovered at that time.
In 2008, DoD was notified that private citizens in Germany
had located the wartime crash site. A DoD team traveled to Morschenich and
surveyed the purported site. In June 2013 another DoD team excavated the site
and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage.
To identify Beethe’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the
Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used forensic identification tools
to include two forms of DNA analysis; mitochondrial DNA, which matched his
cousin, and Y-chromosome Short Tandem Repeat DNA, which matched his nephew.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more
than 400,000 died. Today, more than 73,000 are unaccounted for from the
conflict.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s
mission to account for Americans, who went missing while serving our country,
visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or call 703-699-1420.
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