P-47 Thunderbolt Pilot Lost Over Central Italy

Many are probably not aware of this but approximately 72,000 U.S. personnel remain missing from World War II according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the only federal agency tasked with locating and accounting for missing service members active in past conflicts. 

Several thousand of them are in Europe.

Between April 6 – June 8 of this year, US Army paratroopers stationed with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vicenza, Italy, assisted DPAA on an archaeological investigation to recover a pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt in Central Italy. DPAA does not divulge the location, name of the person, or other details until after identification is confirmed and the family has been notified.

Following a painstaking analysis of military reports and records, local contemporaneous reports of a crash or wreckage, an initial team is sent to conduct a preliminary search of the site using ground-penetrating radar, metal detectors, and small-scale soil surveys. If enough evidence is found, the full recovery team is scheduled and dispatched.

In this instance after the site was identified, 14 paratroopers of the 173rd Brigade cleared the area of trees, brush, and other vegetation and prepared the site for excavation.

Pvt. Samuel Aguilar-Andres said, “When we went out there it was just trees, up in the mountains. All we saw was trees.”

The soldiers also manned the wet screening station where water is poured over soil heaped on wire mesh to search for evidence. Everyone took part in getting the job done regardless of what was required. “I saw leaders doing the same work as the privates, and that meant a lot,” added Pvt. Aguilar-Andres.

The teamwork also impressed Sgt. Dillon Long with the 54th Brigade Engineer Battalion, who said, “We had a lot of dudes who might be combat engineers doing generator maintenance. We had radio guys doing the same thing. You name it, people were out doing all sorts of things.”

The investigative team searches primarily for human remains, but other identifying objects like watches or rings can help identify the person. After a match is confirmed, DPAA contacts the service member’s branch, which then reaches out to the family.

The DPAA has identified about 1,000 people since 2015 when it was reorganized under its current structure.

FMI: www.dpaa.mil