They went AWOL after disappearing behind enemy lines in a war that ended more than 60 years ago.
But at last, the remains of the two World War II US Army Air Force troops have been discovered by search crews deep in the jungles of the mountains in Papua New Guinea, according to the US Defense Department POW/Missing Personnel Office in an interview Thursday.
the department conferred that the A-20G Havoc bomber piloted by U.S. Army Air Force 2nd Lt. Valorie L. Pollard and Sgt. Dominick J. Licari crashed after going on an offensive attack against enemy targets on March 13, 1944. Their remains were found after the site where their air craft crashed was discovered and excavated last year.
What remained of the two Air Force pilots are going to be laid to rest in the Arlington National Cemetery next week.
Over 400,000 US troops died during World War II and remains of more than 73,000 of these killed soldiers were never found or identified, the defense department added.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea is an island country located in the western part of the Pacific, located north of Australia and at the bottom of the equator. Most of the said nation’s area is covered in mountains and jungles.