Crew members of the USS Oklahoma and bombers shot down in Europe were among 13 service members recently accounted for by the Defense Department agency tasked with recovering U.S. troops listed as missing in action or prisoners of war.
Eleven of the identifications announced in December by the Hawaii-based Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency were associated with World War II and two died in Korea, according to agency news releases.
Among these were four sailors killed on Battleship Row during Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.
Seaman 2nd Class David Riley, 25, of Juda, Wis.; Fire Controlman 2nd Class William Gusie, 19; hometown unavailable; Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Lorentz Hultgren, 23, of Tacoma, Wash; and Fire Controlman 2nd Class Donald McCloud, 21, of Monaville, W.Va., died when the USS Oklahoma capsized, the agency said.
Riley was identified Feb. 24, 2021; Gusie on Sept. 23, 2021; Hultgren on Feb. 16, 2018; and McCloud on Sept. 23, 2016, according to December releases.
U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Roy Harms, 26, of Grafton, Wis.; and Tech Sgt. Ralph Richardson Jr., 21, of Columbia, S.C., were killed when their B-24 Liberator bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Romania on Aug. 1, 1943.
The remains of Riley, the bomber’s pilot, were identified on Aug. 2, according to DPAA. Those of Richardson, who served as radio operator, were accounted for on Sept. 14.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Michael Uhrin, 21, of Metuchen, N.J., was the radio operator aboard a B-17F Flying Fortress shot down by enemy fighters near Rommelhausen and Langenberghein, Hessen, Germany, Oct. 14, 1943.
“Surviving B-17 crew members said Uhrin was killed before the plane crashed, and none witnessed him bail out,” DPAA said in a release. The agency identified his remains on May 12.