The
Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that
the remains of a U.S. serviceman, from World War II, have been identified and
are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors
Army
Air Force 1st Lt. Robert G. Fenstermacher, 23, of Scranton, Pa., will be buried
on Oct. 18, in Arlington National Cemetery. On Dec. 26, 1944, Fenstermacher was
a pilot of a P-47D Thunderbolt that was on an armed-reconnaissance mission
against targets in Germany, when his aircraft crashed, near Petergensfeld,
Belgium.
A
U.S. military officer reported seeing Fenstermacher’s aircraft crash. Reaching
the site shortly after impact, he recovered Fenstermacher’s identification tags
from the burning wreckage. No remains or aircraft wreckage was recovered from
the crash site at that time and Fenstermacher was declared killed in action.
Following
the war, the U.S. Army Graves Registration Service (AGRS) investigated and
interviewed a local Belgian woman who told team that an aircraft crashed into
the side of her house. The team searched the surrounding area, but was
unsuccessful locating the crash site.
In
2012, a group of local historians excavated a private yard in Petergensfeld,
Belgium, recovering human remains and aircraft wreckage consistent with a
P-47D. The remains were turned over to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command
(JPAC).
To
identify the remains, scientists from JPAC used circumstantial evidence and
forensic identification tools, such as dental comparisons, which matched
Fenstermacher’s records.
There
are more than 400,000 American service members killed during WWII, and the
remains of more than 73,000 were never recovered or identified.
For
additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for
missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call
(703) 699-1169.
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