Missing World War II Airmen are Identified

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that nine airmen missing in action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

The nine are 2nd Lt. Hugh L. Johnson Jr., Montgomery, Ala.; 2nd Lt. Byron L. Stenen, Northridge, Calif.; 2nd Lt. John F. Green, Watertown, N.Y.; 2nd Lt. John M. Meisner, Pembroke, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Walter Knudsen, Sioux City, Iowa; Cpl. John A. DeCarlo, Newark, N.J.; Cpl. Robert E. Raney, Monon, Ind.; Cpl. William G. Mohr, Mt. Wolf, Pa.; and Cpl. Michael J. Pushkar, Mahanoy City, Pa. All were assigned to the U.S. Army Air Forces.

The individually identified remains of Stenen, Green, Meisner, Mohr and Pushkar, as well as the group remains representing all nine crewmen, are being buried today at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Johnson, Knudsen and Raney will be buried elsewhere.

On the morning of Oct. 9, 1944, the crew took off on a training mission from Nadzab, New Guinea, in their B-24D Liberator. The aircraft was not seen again, and it was speculated that it had encountered bad weather.

In early 2002, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby reported the discovery of two dog tags by villagers from a World War II crash site in Morobe Province. Specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) traveled to Papua, New Guinea, in November 2002 to investigate several World War II aircraft losses. The team interviewed the two villagers who gave them the dog tags, then surveyed the site where aircraft wreckage and human remains were found.

A joint team of JPAC and Papua, New Guinea specialists mounted a full-scale excavation at the site January through February 2003, when they recovered additional human remains and crew-related artifacts from the wreckage field. JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialists used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify the remains. Laboratory analysis of dental remains also confirmed their identification.

Lt. Johnson's obituary:

verbatim from the Birmingham News (AL) obituaries dated 22 March 2006:

JOHNSON, 2ND LT. HUGH L. JR. died October 9, 1944 in New Guinea while serving his country with the U. S. Army Air Corps. The B-24D Liberator he piloted crashed into a mountain near Nadzab, New Guinea. After 62 years his crashed plane was located by the U. S. Army, with the assistance of the locals in that area. His body is being returned to the United States. Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Thursday, March 23, 2006 in the chapel of Pittman Funeral Home in Geneva with Rev. Harold Johnson, half brother of the deceased and Dr. William Morgan, retired Lt. Col. Alabama Army National Guard, currently serving as Director of Missions of the Autauga Baptist Association officiating. Burial will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery with full military honors and Pittman Funeral Home of Geneva directing. The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 1 p.m. until funeral time at 2:00. 2ND

Lt. Johnson was born January 14, 1923 to the late Hugh L. Johnson, Sr. and Mrs. Ruth Marie Driscoll. He attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn University) and was in the Army R.O.T.C. Survivors include his half brother, Harold L. (Barbara) Johnson of Montgomery; a nephew, Leon (Flora) Johnson of Montgomery; a niece, Rebecca Adkins of Montgomery; two step-sisters, Jean Luton of Montgomery, Al and Carol Graham of Tallahassee, Fl; a cousin, Joel E. (Nell) Johnson, Jr. of Geneva, Al. Many great nephews and nieces; his mother's relatives include but not limited to, Betty Jean Hyman of Conway, S.C., Joy Scott of Tallahassee, FL, Mrs. Sue Windham of Geneva, Al, Mr. Claude Moore of Geneva, Al, Mrs. Susan Windham Wood of Defuniak Springs, Fl and a childhood and teenage friend, Mr. Fred Byrd of Geneva, Al. Special appreciation to Pittman Funeral Home for their ceaseless compassion and assistance, to Mr. Fred Byrd for his tireless efforts, and to Mrs. Betty Jean Hyman, whose DNA assisted the U. S. Army in identification.

And SSGT Knudsen's:

Staff Sgt. Walter Knudsen's remains were found 58 years after his plane was lost in New Guinea.

Chuck Haga, Star Tribune
Harold Knudsen, 85, of Park Rapids, Minn., hasn't seen his brother in more than 60 years, but he is in Iowa today to be close to him once more.

Walter Knudsen joined the Army Air Forces during World War II and served as a gunner on a B-24 Liberator. Harold, three years older, served in the Marines as an aircraft welder.

Harold came home. Walter didn't.

"All we heard was that his plane had taken off and never returned," Harold said. "It was lost over the jungle" on Oct. 9, 1944.

In 2002, a New Guinea villager walking through the thick foliage of the rain forest found a set of dog tags. They were Walter's. The villager took the tags to officials in Port Moresby, who contacted U.S. authorities.

An MIA recovery team based in Hawaii searched the site, 11 miles southwest of Lae, New Guinea, in 2003. They eventually found the buried wreckage, recovered the remains and began trying to identify them.

Harold Knudsen provided a blood sample, and DNA testing proved that one set of remains was his brother.

Walter will be buried Saturday in Memorial Park Cemetery in Sioux City, near his parents.

"It's unbelievable -- 62 years," said Terri Knudsen, Harold's daughter, who with the help of the Iowa National Guard arranged for Saturday's memorial service and burial. "We're so blessed to have him returned to us."

She watched at the Omaha airport Tuesday as her uncle's flag-draped casket was delivered from Hawaii, accompanied by a military escort. "They stay with it 24 hours a day until he's buried," she said.

Her father wasn't there. "He said he couldn't handle it emotionally," she said.

Harold went to the cemetery Wednesday to let his parents know that Walter was coming.

"It's a great relief to have a loved one returned to our home," he said.

Harold moved to Park Rapids in 1970 and opened a laundry in the northern Minnesota town. He retired in 1985 but continues to live there.

Terri Knudsen, 57, lives in Maryland. She was born nearly five years after her uncle died.

"I never met him, but boy, did I hear incredible stories about the man," she said. "He was so young, just 21. And look at the amount of responsibility he had at 19 and 20, when he was promoted to staff sergeant and was training gunners."

The brothers were close, she said. "They shared a bedroom, and they did everything together. They helped support the family during the Depression, delivering papers."

"My uncle had wavy blond hair and was Hollywood handsome," Terri Knudsen said. "His crewmates on the B-24 called him 'Daisy.'

The last mission: Alabama pilot's remains found 62 years later

By Mike Linn
Montgomery Advertiser

March 22, 2006

Every now and then, for 62 years, Fred Byrd would look at a photo of his cousin and ask, "Where are ya, ol' buddy?"

He never got an answer -- until two weeks ago, when defense officials confirmed they had found the remains of 2nd Lt. Hugh Johnson deep in the jungles of the South Pacific.

Johnson's B-24D Liberator crashed into the side of a mountain in New Guinea during World War II, killing the Alabama pilot and eight crewmembers.

"This is a miracle," said Byrd, who grew up with Johnson near Geneva. "I always wondered if he had been shot down ... or if his plane had gone down in the ocean, if he was hanging from his parachute in the jungle."

Johnson, 21 at the time he died, will receive a full military funeral and flyover Thursday in Geneva. Services begin at 2 p.m. at the Pittman Funeral Home.

Johnson's plane took off Oct. 9, 1944, on a foggy morning for a training session in New Guinea and never returned, federal officials said.

The disappearance was reported in the Oct. 27, 1944, edition of the Montgomery Advertiser.

Johnson, who had attended Auburn University for a year before to joining the Army Air Corps, was believed to have been shot down on one of his first missions, his father, Hugh Johnson Sr., told the newspaper.

In November 2002, POW recovery teams from Hawaii traveled to New Guinea to interview two villagers who found the plane and two sets of dog tags, one for Johnson and another for Cpl. Michael J. Pushkar, one of Johnson's crewmates.

In February 2003, the federal Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office excavated the wreckage and found human remains from the nine crewmembers, said spokesman Larry Greer. Workers identified the entire crew in October of 2005 through DNA analysis, items found at the site and dental records.

Johnson's half brother, Harold Johnson, said Army officials came to his Montgomery home March 7 with his brother's dog tags, his college ring, photos of the crash and confirmation that his brother's DNA matched that of his cousin, Betty Jean Hyman of Conway, S.C.

"All of these years. All of these years. Sixty-two years, fella, 62 years. And all of a sudden they tell me they've found him, and I said, 'My stars, after 62 years,'" said Harold Johnson, who was 8 when his father told him his older brother went missing. "This is a work of God."

Harold Johnson said after his brother went missing, he decided to join the Air Force.

"I remember telling my dad as a teenager that I was going to join the Air Force and go over there to find him, but during my time in the Air Force I never went near New Guinea," he said.

Byrd, 81, was serving in the Navy in New Guinea when the plane crashed, and he remembers the empty feeling he had.

For years, he has coped by looking at the framed photos of Johnson in his living room. When his eyesight went about three years ago, he'd hold the photo and take comfort from it.

"It was the furthest thing from my mind that he would ever be found and returned home," he said. "But he's home, and we're going to give him a big celebration."

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