An Army Air Forces member who was killed 80 years ago during World War II has been identified and accounted for, and will be laid to rest in his Illinois hometown days after Memorial Day.
Tech. Sgt. James Howie, who was 24 at the time, was a radio operator on a B-24 Liberator bomber on August 1, 1943, when it was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed north of Bucharest, Romania, during Operation Tidal Wave, the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said.
After the war, Howie’s remains were never identified, the agency said. His remains, along with the remains of other unidentified comrades, were buried as “unknowns” in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania, the agency said.
