Will Be Interred In Private Ceremony In Carbondale, IL

The remains of one of the volunteer "Flying Tigers" who helped defend Burma and China from the Japanese early in WWII have been identified and returned to his home state of Illinois for burial.

Mr. Maax C. Hammer, Jr., 25, of Cairo, Illinois, will be buried March 21 in Carbondale, Illinois. In mid-1941, Hammer, formerly in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve, was recruited among a small group of American pilots battling Japanese forces invading China. He was employed with the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), which was officially termed the “American Volunteer Group,” (AVG) and popularly known as the “Flying Tigers.” The AVG consisted of three fighter squadrons, each with approximately 30 Curtiss P-40 single-seat aircraft. In September 1941, Hammer was training with other AVG pilots at Kyedaw Airfield, a British Royal Air Force airfield outside of Toungoo, Burma. Though most of the recruits were experienced pilots, none had seen combat. To prepare them, the AVG instituted an aggressive training program, encouraging their pilots to carry out mock battles. Hammer was killed during a training flight on Sept. 22, 1941, when he encountered severe weather and his plane went down. Hammer was reportedly buried in the Airmen’s Cemetery at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Toungoo.

In late December 1947, an American Graves Registration Service team recovered the remains of three members of the AVG. The remains were declared unidentifiable and were temporarily interred in the U.S. Military Cemetery at Barrackpore, India in January, 1948. The remains were eventually moved to Hawaii in an attempt to identify them, designated as X-633, X-634 and X-635, but identification was unsuccessful. They were reinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, as World War II Unknowns.

On April 11, 2016, due to advancements in forensic capabilities, X-634 was disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

To identify Hammer’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA analysis, which matched a cousin; as well as dental and anthropological analysis, which matched his records, and circumstantial evidence.

(Source: DPAA news release. Image from file)

FMI: www.dpaa.mil