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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Missing WWII Airman Identified (Gill)

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

The funeral for U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Martin A. Gill, 26, of Linden, Calif., will beheld Sunday in his hometown. On March 12, 1945, Gill and five crew members aboard a C-47ASkytrain departed Tanauan Airfield on Leyte, Philippines, on a resupply mission to guerillatroops. Once cleared for takeoff there was no further communication between the aircrew andairfield operators. When the aircraft failed to return, a thorough search of an area ten miles oneither side of the intended route was initiated. No evidence of the aircraft was found and the sixmen were presumed killed in action. Their remains were determined to be non-recoverable in1949.

In 1989, a Philippine National Police officer contacted U.S. officials regarding a possibleWorld War II-era aircraft crash near Leyte. Human remains, aircraft parts and artifacts wereturned over to the local police, then to U.S. officials at the Joint POW/MIA AccountingCommand.

From 1989 to 2009, JPAC sought permission to send teams to the crash site but unrest inthe Burauen region precluded on-scene investigations or recovery operations. Meanwhile, JPACscientists continued the forensic process, analyzing the remains and physical evidence already inhand.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, the Armed ForcesDNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA—which matched that of Gill’s cousin—in the identification of his remains.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died. At theend of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000Americans. Today, more than 73,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missingAmericans, call 703-699-1420 or visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

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