Remains of US pilot whose bomber was shot down in World War II identified 81 years later

A Connecticut man who was killed in a bombing raid in Burma during World War II is missing, U.S. authorities said Wednesday.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Staff Sgt. Frank Tedone of the Army Air Force was 23 years old when he served as a gunner aboard a B-24J Liberator bomber as part of the 436th Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bombardment Group.

On December 1, 1943, Tedone and nine other crew members flew on a bombing run from Panagarh, India, to a rail yard near Rangoon, Burma. Their plane was reportedly “hit by anti-aircraft fire, causing the left wing to burst into flames,” according to DPAA, and the plane “went into a steep dive” before disappearing.

In addition, three enemy aircraft were observed pursuing the aircraft, the DPAA said. There was no further contact with the aircraft’s crew.

No remains were recovered or identified and the crew members, including Tedone, were declared missing. It was not until 1947 that the American Grave Registration Service recovered the remains of eight people killed in a B-24 Liberator crash in Burma. The remains had been buried in two large graves on the orders of the Japanese forces occupying the area at the time of the crash.

The remains were transferred from these large graves and buried as unknown soldiers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In early 2019, the DPAA received a request from a family to exhume one of the eight remains. All remains were exhumed and returned to the Laboratories of the Agency for Analysis. The experts who examine the remains use scientific techniques such as dental records, isotope analysis, mitochondrial and chromosome analysis, and more to make an identification. Historians and other DPAA staff also use circumstantial and physical evidence to identify the remains.

Tedone’s remains were identified on February 20, 2024.

As a sign that he is missing, a rosette was placed next to his name on the wall for the missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the DPAA said. All fallen soldiers identified by the DPAA are entitled to a military burial.