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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# WWII Soldier Identified (Terpning)

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

Army 1st Lt. John E. Terpning, of Mount Prospect, Ill., will be buried on April 3, in ArlingtonNational Cemetery near Washington D.C. On May 7, 1944, Terpning was a pilot of a B-24D Liberatorthat departed Nadzab, New Guinea on a bombing mission. Due to mechanical troubles, the B-24D wasdelayed in departing the airbase and was unable to join the formation after takeoff. Neither the aircraft,Terpning, nor the nine other crewmen aboard the plane were seen after takeoff. In 1946, the WarDepartment declared all ten men to be presumed dead.

In 1973, a Papua New Guinea Forest Department official reported a wartime aircraft in themountains northeast of the city of Lae. In October 1973, a team of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)responded to the report and visited the site, where they found aircraft wreckage that corresponded to thatof a B-24D. At that time the RAAF recovered possible human remains, which were transferred to theU.S. Army Mortuary in Tachikawa, Japan; however, given the limited technology at the time, no humanremains were individually identified. In 1974, the remains were buried as a group at Arlington NationalCemetery.

In April 2008, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team was sent to investigate andsurvey the crash site. The team recovered aircraft wreckage, including a radio call sign data plate thatmatched the aircraft, from a B-24D and additional remains.

To identify the remains, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA IdentificationLaboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools such as dental comparisonsand mitochondrial DNA, which matched Terpning’s brother.

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, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.

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