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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Airman Missing From WWII Identified (Mease)

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

Capt. Jennings H. Mease, 36, of Greenville, S.C., will be buried Sept. 30 in Salt Lake City.On April 24, 1943, Mease and four other U.S. servicemen were flying over the Himalayanmountains, from Yangkai, China, to their home base in Chabua, India, in their C-87 LiberatorExpress aircraft. After losing radio communications following take-off, the crew was never heardfrom again. Eleven aerial search missions were unable to locate the aircraft or crew due tointense snows on the mountains, at high altitudes, and dense jungle growth, at lower altitudes.

Almost 60 years later, in 2003, an American citizen discovered the wreckage of the C-87aircraft while trekking in the mountains near Chabua. He recovered the aircraft’s identificationplate, military equipment and human remains. The artifacts and remains were turned over to U.S.officials for analysis. Attempts to excavate the site are being negotiated with the Indiangovernment.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from theJoint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratoryused mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Mease’s cousins – in the identification of theremains.

As part of the war effort against the Japanese, U.S. Army Air Forces cargo planes based inIndia continually airlifted critical supplies over the high mountain ranges that comprise theHimalayas – known as “The Hump” – in support of American airbases in China. The amount ofmateriel flown over the Himalayas was a logistical achievement unparalleled at the time.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000died. 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) 699-1169 or visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

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