From the September 21st Boston Globe "US identifies remains of Mass. WWII soldier" by John M. Guilfoil.
Missing since a June 26, 1943, bombing raid, Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Leonard A. Gionet, 30, was one of ten crewmen on a mission to attack Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, when his B-17E Flying Fortress nicknamed "Naughty but Nice" was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and then shot down by a Japanese fighter plane over New Britain Island.
Nine died. Only Lt. Jose L. Holguin, the plane's navigator, survived. He was captured and held prisoner until September 1945.
In 1949, locals led US military to the site of the plane crash and some of the remains were recovered, but the technology to identify them did not exist at the time.
They were buried in the "Unknown" section of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
Holguin returned to the crash site in 1982 and 1983 to look for his fallen comrades. A piece of the plane's nose art was recovered and is now on display at the War Museum on Kokopo, Papua New Guinea.
With new available technology and information, the remains in Hawaii were exhumed and five of the crewmembers identified.
More to Come. --Cooter
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