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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Missing WWII Airman Identified (Hafner, Armacost, Eppright, Feucht, Cisneros, Hill, Lascelles, Cameron, Rozzell) 

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel (DPMO) announced today that nine serviceman missingin action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burialwith full military honors.

They are 1st Lt. William M. Hafner, Norfolk, Va.; and 2nd Lt. Arthur C. Armacost, III,Cincinnati, Ohio; 2nd Lt. David R. Eppright, Warrensburg, Mo.; 2nd Lt. Charles F. Feucht,Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Technical Sgt. Raymond S. Cisneros, San Antonio, Tex.; Technical Sgt. AlfredW. Hill, Temple, Okla.; Technical Sgt. James G. Lascelles, New York, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. William C.Cameron, Los Angeles Calif.; and Staff Sgt. Wilburn W. Rozzell, Duncan, Okla. All were members ofthe 63rd Bombardment Squadron, 43 Bombardment Group.

The individually-identified remains of Armacost, Cameron, Hafner and Lascelles are beingburied July 19 at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. as are the group remainsrepresenting all nine crewmen. Cisneros, Rozzell, Feucht, Eppright and Hill were buried elsewhere.

On November 4, 1943 Hafner and his crew took off in a B-24 Liberator from Dobodura,Territory of New Guinea. The men were on an armed reconnaissance mission over the Bismark Sea.A few hours into the flight Hafner sighted a convoy of Japanese ships and was told to shadow theconvoy and report back. Four hours later the crew radioed from the B-24 that they had made threedirect hits on the convoy and destroyed the target. That was the last radio contact with the crew.

In March 2002 a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) was contactedby a local government official through the U.S. Embassy. The team was exploring unrelated WW IIaircraft crash sites in Papua New Guinea. The official turned over aircraft data plates, human remainsand three ID tags which had been found at a crash site in Morobe Province.

During the excavation of the site in Aug.-Sept. 2003, the team recovered additional remainsand personal effects including identification tags and bracelets. The remains were submitted to theArmed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL). Specialists at JPAC and AFDIL usedmitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify the remains of these servicemen.Laboratory analysis of dental remains also confirmed their identification.

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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