Remains of airmen missing since WWII accounted for

http://www.omaha.com/news/nation/remains-of-airmen-missing-since-wwii-accounted-for/article_76a289a2-1e16-11e4-bad4-001a4bcf6878.html

POSTED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2014 4:37 AM

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The remains of two missing airmen have been accounted for 70 years after they disappeared when their plane went down over Papua New Guinea during World War II, U.S. military officials said.

The remains of 1st Lts. William Bernier and Bryant Poulsen were identified through DNA and other evidence collected from the crash site in a forest on the Pacific island nation, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan with the Defense Prisoner of War-Missing Personnel Office.

Bernier was from Augusta, Montana, and Poulsen from Salt Lake City, Utah.

April 10, 1944, their B-24-D Liberator nicknamed “Hot Garters” took off from an air base in eastern Papua New Guinea. It was one of 60 B-24s tasked with bombing anti-aircraft positions around Japanese airfields, according to PacificWrecks.com, a nonprofit group that documents details on military personnel missing in action from the Pacific Theater.

FULL story at link.