Airman Missing from WWII is Identified

Sreiko · 6 September 2007, 05:07 AM

No. 1083-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 05, 2007
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
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Airman Missing from WWII is Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from World War II, have been
identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military
honors.

He is 2nd Lt. Harold E. Hoskin, U.S. Army Air Forces, of Houlton, Maine.He will
be buried Friday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Representatives from the Army met with Hoskin's next-of-kin to explain the
recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military
honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.

On Dec. 21, 1943, Hoskin was one of five crewmen on board a B-24D that departed
Ladd Field in Fairbanks, Alaska, on a cold-weather test mission.The aircraft
never returned to base and it was not located in subsequent search attempts.The
following March, one of the crewmen, 1st Lt. Leon Crane, arrived at Ladd Field
after spending more than two months in the Alaska wilderness.He said that the
plane had crashed after it lost an engine, and Crane and another crewmember,
Master Sgt. Richard L. Pompeo, parachuted from the aircraft before it crashed.
Crane did not know what happened to Pompeo after they bailed out.

In October 1944, Crane assisted a recovery team in locating the crash.They
recovered the remains of two of the crewmen, 1st Lt. James B. Sibert and Staff
Sgt. Ralph S. Wenz.Hoskin's remains were not found and it was concluded that he
probably parachuted out of the aircraft before it crashed.

In 2004, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) received information from
a National Park Service Historian regarding a possible WWII crash site in the
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska.The historian turned over ashes
believed to be the cremated remains of the crew, however, it was determined they
contained no human remains.In 2006, a JPAC team excavated the site and recovered
human remains and other non-biological material, including items worn by U.S.
Army officers during WWII.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also
used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Hoskin's remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for
missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office or call (703)
699-1169.