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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Aviator Missing From WWII Identified (Scribner)

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, were recentlyidentified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Navy Radioman 1st Class Harry C. Scribner, 20, of Seattle, will be buried June 29, inMinneapolis, Minn. On Aug. 2, 1943, Scribner and two other men were aboard a TBF-1 Avengeraircraft that crashed on the island of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides—now known as Vanuatu—while on a routine calibration flight. Sixteen days after the crash, one crewman was rescued fromthe jungle but was unable to assist recovery teams with locating the crash site. Shortly thereafter,personnel from the Army Graves Registration were unsuccessful in locating the site as well, andthe two men were deemed unrecoverable.

In 1999, a U.S. recovery team investigated several World War II aircraft crash sites onVanuatu. In addition to human remains, at one location the team located aircraft wreckage whichcorrelated with Scribner’s aircraft.

From 2000 to 2011, additional U.S. recovery teams from the Joint POW/MIA AccountingCommand (JPAC) excavated the crash site three times, recovering additional human remains andmilitary equipment.

Scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used forensicidentification tools and circumstantial evidence, including dental comparisons and mitochondrialDNA—which matched that of Scribner’s cousin—in the identification of his remains.

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

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