Crew members of Lt. William Parker Cook's B-26 (serial number 43-34430) have been identified and returned to their families. The recovery (read the detailed B-26 Recovery Report below) was the result of joint search and excavation work by History Flight, The 99th Division MIA project and then JPAC from 2011 to 2013. Way to go, to everyone who worked together on this successful project!

On  June 16, 2015, the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that U.S. servicemen, missing from World War II, have been accounted for and their remains are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William P. Cook, 27, of Alameda, Calif., Flight Officer Arthur J. LeFavre, 22, of Red Bank, N.J., Staff Sgts. Maurice J. Fevold, 21, of Chicago, Frank G. Lane Jr., 21, of Cleveland, and Ward C. Swalwell Jr., 21, of Chicago, and Sgt. Eric M. Honeyman, 21, of Alameda, Calif., have been accounted for and will be buried with full military honors. Cook was buried Oct. 18, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Fevold was buried Oct. 20, 2014, in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, Lane was buried May 2, 2015, in Willoughby, Ohio. Honeyman will be buried on June 22 in Trail, British Columbia, Canada. Swalwell, LeFavre, and the group representing the crew will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C. in August 2015.

On Dec. 23, 1944, Cook along with five other B-26G Marauder crewmembers took off from Saint Quentin, France, on a mission to bomb an enemy-held railroad bridge in Eller, Germany. The aircraft was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire near Seffern, Germany, near the Belgium border.

Following World War II, the Army Graves Registration Command (AGRC) conducted extensive field investigations and was unable to locate the aircraft and the crew. In May 1949, AGRC concluded the crew members were unrecoverable.

In 2006, a group of aviation researchers located the wreckage of a B-26G near Allmuthen, Belgium and notified the U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs Activity – Europe. In 2007, a Department of Defense (DoD) team investigated the site and recommended it for excavation.

In 2012 and 2013, DoD teams excavated the crash site and recovered human remains and non-biological material evidence.

To identify Honeyman’s remains, scientists from DoD and AFDIL used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including, partial Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) DNA, which matched Honeyman’s paternal-line cousins.

To identify Cook’s remains, scientists from DoD and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including mitochondrial DNA, which matched Cook’s maternal-line cousins.

To identify LeFavre’s remains scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched LeFavre’s maternal-line niece and grandniece.

To identify Lane’s remains, scientists from DPAA and AFDIL used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including, partial Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) DNA, which matched Lane’s paternal-line nephew.

To identify Fevold’s remains, scientists from DoD and AFDIL used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched Fevold’s maternal-line niece.

To identify Swalwell’s remains scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched Swalwell’s maternal-line sister and niece.