Remains of an Ohio Valley native and World War II soldier will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery

The remains of U.S. Army Tech Sgt. William F. Teaff, a soldier killed in World War II, will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on July 25.

Teaff was a native of Steubenville, Ohio, and a radio operator with the 351st Bomber Squadron, 100th Bomber Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force. During a bombing mission on March 6, 1944, the B-17 Flying Fortress he was serving on was attacked by German fighters.

Teaff was able to parachute out of the plane before it exploded, but was captured and died as a prisoner of war on July 10, 1944, at the age of 26.

Teaff was identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on April 20, 2022, after soldier remains were excavated from the crash site for laboratory analysis in August 2021.

The Past Conflict Repatriations Branch of the Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Division of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, plays a key role in locating family members of missing soldiers from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

The process begins with a search for the family member most closely related to the missing soldier (called the primary next of kin), followed by a request for family reference samples or DNA, which serve as the primary source for identifying the remains.

Once a soldier is identified by the Armed Forces Coroner, the PCRB notifies and informs the family of the results of the historical, forensic and DNA reports, the services and the post-mortem process, including burial with full military honors.