20 November 2003 07:56
Remains of World War II US bomber crew recovered in Russia
The remains of seven Navy crewmembers of a US bomber that disappeared on a mission against Japan in World War II have
been recovered in Russia and returned to their families for burial with full military honors, the Pentagon said.
The remains were identified by forensics experts at the army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii using
a range of techniques, including mitrochondrial DNA, the Pentagon said.
The seven were flying a US Navy PV-1 Ventura bomber on a mission against Japanese targets in the Kurile islands when
they went missing in foul weather some six hours after taking off from Attu Island, Alaska on March 25, 1944.
A search of waters extending some 200 miles from Attu Island turned up no wreckage.
In 2000, a US-Russia committee on MIA/POW matters received a report from a Russian who discovered the wreckage of a
US bomber in 1962 on the Kamchatka peninsula.
A US military team found the crash site and some human remains later in 2000, prompting an excavation of the site the
following year and the discovery of more remains, which were returned to the United States.
The crew members were identified as Lieutenant Walter Whitman Jr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lieutenant junior
grade John W. Hanlon Jr. of Worcester, Massachusetts.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Clarence Fridley of Manhattan, Montana;
Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald G. Lewallen of Omaha, Nebraska; Petty Officer 2nd Class Jack Parlier of Decatur,
Illinois; Petty Officer 3rd Class Samuel L. Crown Jr. of Columbus, Ohio and Petty Officer 3rd Class James S. Palko of
Superior, Wisconsin.
More than 78,000 servicemen are missing in action from World War II.
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RUSSIA IN FACTS
