Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, who died during combat on May 29, 1944, during World War II, was buried Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Dyer’s remains in September. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
KILLEEN, Texas — A flag-draped casket inside a horse-drawn carriage carried 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer into the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery on Monday, bringing the Army veteran to his final resting place nearly 79 years after he was killed in action in World War II.
“Most of us probably have no recollection of who Wayne is or know him personally. However, his heroism and patriotism to this nation is what all of us can understand,” said Capt. Martin Akewe, the Army chaplain who spoke during the ceremony. “This is not a moment of mourning but for rejoicing because our loved one has come home.”
The 22-year-old from Hobart, Okla., served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and was assigned to the 569th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 13th Bombardment Wing, 3rd Air Division of the 8th Air Force.
He was the navigator for 10-person crew aboard a B-17 “Flying Fortress” bomber on May 29, 1944, during a mission to attack a German factory when enemy fire struck the plane causing it to catch fire and crash into farmland deep behind enemy lines. Six crew members successful deployed their parachutes and were captured on the ground by German forces. Four men, including Dyer, died on impact.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the office of the Defense Department tasked with locating and identifying the remains of missing service members, identified Dyer’s remains in September.
Cheri Stripling, the great-niece of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, accepts a folder flag during the burial service for Dyer on Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. Dyer died during combat May 29, 1944, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified his remains in September. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
Cheri Stripling, Dyer’s 67-year-old great niece, accepted a folded flag at the burial ceremony, which had dozens of veterans, community members and active-duty soldiers in attendance.
“I’ve been going over this mountain of information on Wayne, and it’s the most incredible story to have been gone for so long and they finally found him,” Stripling said. “It’s just amazing what our country will do to bring guys home.”
She chose to bury him at a veterans cemetery near her home in Leander, Texas, instead of Dyer’s home state of Oklahoma because she wanted him near family who could more easily visit.
Growing up, Stripling knew very little of her great uncle. Dyer was her paternal grandmother’s brother.
“He was never spoken of. I don’t know if my grandmother couldn’t handle it, or if she just blocked it out,” she said. “The only thing I ever found about him was in a Bible, and it was just his name.”
Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, who died during combat on May 29, 1944, during World War II, was buried Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Dyer’s remains in September. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, who died during combat on May 29, 1944, during World War II, was buried Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Dyer’s remains in September. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
It could explain why her grandmother doted on her father, Stripling said. Both have since died, and Stripling’s mother suffers from memory loss, so there’s no one left in the family to ask about Dyer and how his loss was felt within the family.
However, the actions recorded about him by the six men who survived the crash depict someone willing to sacrifice himself to save others.
Dyer and the crew were sent to bomb an aircraft factory near Leipzig, Germany. The mission was part of a large air raid that targeted thousands of buildings.
After Dyer’s plane was hit by enemy fire and burning, the bomber fell out of formation and the pilot fought to keep the aircraft under control while six men escaped with their parachutes, according to DPAA records.
Of the remaining three men, one had been shot in the leg. Dyer and another crew member tried to help him get his parachute, but he jumped too late to pull the chute and survive. Dyer and the other man died in the plane alongside the pilot when it crashed into a field near the town of Horst.
His parents posthumously received an Air Medal and Purple Heart Medal for their son. About a year after the crash, he was formally presumed dead.
An undated photo of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, who died in combat on May 29, 1944, during World War II. Dyer was buried Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Dyer’s remains in September. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
The American Graves Registration Command, which was charged with recovering the remains of fallen service members in the European Theater following the war, found one crew member buried in a local cemetery in Horst during a 1946 search. After 1950, worsening diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, which controlled this part of Germany at the time, prevented the command from investigating further. Dyer was declared non-recoverable on April 21, 1953.
The crash site was located in July 2012, and then excavated in 2019 with permission from the landowner.
Sarah Kindschuh, a forensic anthropologist with DPAA at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., received four large cardboard boxes filled with plastic bags of material collected from the site and spent about 13 months examining all the material items that were not human remains. Another forensic team used dental and anthropological analysis to identify Dyer, she said.
“It just took a lot of time to basically open all the bags, clean everything to the point where you can identify it. Then [we] actually do the analysis and try and determine which items might go together and which items might go with a specific person, since we’re dealing with at least three people on the plane,” Kindschuh said.
From the bags, she recovered remnants of Dyer’s flight suit, a zip-up sweater and his service shirt with his navigator wings still attached. His pockets still held his metal rank insignia, a pocketknife, a Bible and a key to a padlock. She also found Dyer’s leather navigator case that held his papers, map fragments and the tools that he would have used to perform his job.
An honor guard performs a three-volley salute Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas, for the burial of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, who died during combat on May 29, 1944. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Dyer’s remains in September. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
Kindschuh said it was the first time that she had seen someone’s clothing and items so intact.
“This is a great example of why it’s important to do World War II work because we are getting so much material and evidence from these cases,” she said. “I never would have thought that a bomber crash from 1944 that’s been probably plowed over multiple times would have yielded this much stuff.”
Immediately following World War II, the U.S. identified the remains of roughly 280,000 Americans, according to DPAA. The U.S. renewed these efforts in the 1970s and has since identified 1,452 people and returned their remains to their families for burial. There are still more than 72,230 missing.
Though Dyer died nearly eight decades ago, Akewe told those at the burial ceremony that “we can still grasp the sting of death.”
“We are reminded that one day we will all come to our last time on this Earth. We should continue to ask ourselves, ‘What did we do with our time?’ ” he said. “Our beloved brother Wayne has done his part.”
Cheri Stripling, the great-niece of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne Dyer, speaks with Richard Briggs, a military veteran, at a burial service for Dyer held Monday, April 10, 2023, at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. Dyer died during combat May 29, 1944, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified his remains in September. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
