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## News Release

# Airman Missing In Action From WWII Is Identified (Kelly)

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

He is 1st Lt. Archibald Kelly, U.S. Army Air Forces, of Detroit, Mich. He will be buried onMay 12 in Great Lakes National Cemetery, Holly, Mich.

Representatives from the Army met with Kelly’s next-of-kin in his hometown to explain therecovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of theSecretary of the Army.

On July 22, 1944, Kelly was the navigator on a B-24J Liberator on a bombing raid of the oilfields at Ploesti, Romania. Returning to Lecce air base in Italy, the plane was struck by enemy antiaircraftfire and crashed in what is now Croatia, approximately 430 miles southwest of Ploesti. Of theten crewmen on board, eight survived and bailed out of the aircraft before it crashed. The rear gunnerdied and his body was later recovered. One of the surviving crewmen saw Kelly bail out before thecrash, but said he struck a rocky cliff face when the wind caught his parachute. His body was not foundat that time.

After researching information contained in U.S. wartime records, specialists from DPMO’s JointCommission Support Directorate (JCSD) in 2005 interviewed residents from Dubrovnik and Mihanicivillage who had information related to WWII aircraft losses in the area. One resident recalled a crash inwhich one of the crewmen landed on a pile of rocks on Mt. Snijeznica after his parachute failed to open.He said locals buried the individual. Based on witness descriptions of the burial location, the teamsearched the mountaintop, but was unable to locate the burial site.

Additional JCSD archival research in Croatia confirmed the earlier information found in U.S.records. In June 2006, the Dubrovnik resident reported to JCSD that he had continued the search andfound the grave site of the American serviceman. He sent pictures of both the site and the remains toDPMO. In September 2006, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team excavated theburial site, confirming with local villagers that it was the same site photographed by the Dubrovnikresident. The team recovered human remains at the site.

Among other traditional forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists fromJPAC also used dental comparisons in the identification of Kelly’s remains.

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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