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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Airman Missing In Action From WWII Identified (Eck)

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 returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Harry W. Eck, of Minot Ward, N.D. On Sept. 13, 1944, Eck andeight other crew members were on a B-17G Flying Fortress that crashed near Neustaedt-on-the-Werra, Germany. Only one of the crewmen is known to have successfully parachuted out of theaircraft before in crashed. The remaining eight crewmen were buried by German forces in acemetery in Neustaedt.

Following the war, U.S. Army Graves Registration personnel attempted to recover theremains of the eight men, but were only able to move the remains of one man to a U.S. militarycemetery in Holland. In 1953, with access to eastern Germany restricted by the Soviet Union, theremains of the seven unaccounted for crewmen were declared Non-Recoverable.

In 1991, a German national who was digging a grave in the cemetery in Neustaedt,discovered a metal U.S. military identification tag and notified officials. Due to German buriallaw, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) wasn’t granted access to the site until 2007and excavated the location in 2008. The team recovered human remains and additional metalidentification tags from three of the crewmembers.

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

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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