From the Jan. 30, 2011, Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The remains of Staff Sgt. Berthold A. Chastain returned home Jan. 29th from World War Ii after being missing for nearly sixty years. His remains arrived in Atanta and were escorted by motorcycles from the Georgia and Tennessee Patriot Guards and state troopers.
The group stopped first in Dalton, Georgia, where Chastain was born in 1916 and then continued to Cleveland, Tennessee. Onlookers stood and waved flags along the way.
He was the tail gunner in a B-24 bomber which crashed October 23, 1943, on the South Pacific island of New Guinea. After searching in vain for the crash site, the US Army Air Corps declared the twelve-member crew dead on October 24, 1944.
In 2003, the POW/MIA group learned that a New Guinea resident had found a potential crash site, but it still took years to find the place, find evidence and identify the remains.
Tulie Mae Chastain Swilling, his daughter, was just a small child when he died.
Five Chastain brothers served in the war and brother Clifford also flew in a B-24. he was captured by the Japanese and held captive for two years, but returned home and is still living.
The continual search for our missing military personnel is a credit to the United States.
Kudos to the Government. --DaCoot
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