John E. McLauchlen Jr.: World War II pilot buried 80 years after his disappearance

CNN
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A 25-year-old World War II pilot who went missing during a mission in Southeast Asia 80 years ago was buried and laid to rest with full honors in Kansas earlier this week.

Second Lt. John E. McLauchlen Jr. of Detroit was killed in 1943 during World War II in a bombing raid from Panagarh, India, to a freight yard near Rangoon, Myanmar (then called Burma), according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

McLauchlen was officially reported missing on Jan. 25, 2024, the agency said. He was buried at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery on July 8 and honored with a flyover by a B-1 bomber, Fort Leavenworth said.

On December 1, 1943, McLauchlen’s B-24J Liberator bomber aircraft reached the intended target, but was hit by “anti-aircraft fire, causing the left wing to burst into flames,” according to the accounting agency.

“My uncle was in charge of the mission that day, so his plane was right up front, right in the middle,” McLauchlen’s nephew Richard McLauchlen Jr. said in an interview with the U.S. Army published Thursday.

“When they came under fire and the wing was smoking, my uncle decided to get out of the formation so his plane wouldn’t shoot anyone else down,” said Vietnam veteran Richard McLauchlen Jr.

Witnesses from another aircraft saw the plane flown by McLauchlen enter a steep dive and eventually disappear behind the clouds, authorities reported.

“It was determined that (three) enemy aircraft were also seen following the damaged aircraft into the clouds, and no further contact with the Liberator was made,” the agency said. “The remains of the crew were neither recovered nor identified after the war, and they were all later reported missing.”

At the time of his disappearance, McLauchlen was serving as a member of the 436th Bombardment Squadron, Seventh Bombardment Group of the Army Air Forces.

Four years later, the American Graves Registration Service discovered the remains of what are believed to be eight people involved in a possible crash of a B-24 Liberator near Yodayadet, Burma, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The remains could not be scientifically identified at that time and were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

The accounting agency said it received a request from the family in early 2019 to exhume one of the unidentified individuals, “based on previous attempts to link the remains to other unexplained losses from southern Burma,” the press release said.

The remains were exhumed in October 2020 and taken to a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory for analysis, the agency said.

Scientists used anthropological analysis as well as circumstantial and physical evidence to identify McLauchlen, and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis. His nephew’s DNA helped in his identification, the U.S. Army reported.

“He was unknown for 80 years, and now he’s here, he’s home, and he’ll never be lost again,” Richard McLauchlen Jr. said of his uncle in the U.S. Army interview.

Genetic genealogy combines DNA analysis in the laboratory with genealogical research, such as tracing a person’s family tree. Such DNA matching is touted as a way to explore personal history and contact previously unknown relatives. It has also been used to link victims to criminals such as the Happy Face Killer, who murdered at least eight women, and to identify other long-missing military personnel.

CNN’s Michelle Krupa contributed to this report.