Hickam forensic team
leaves for Europe
Two recovery teams from the Army's premier forensic laboratory will spend in time the next couple of months searching for the remains of World War II servicemen in Belgium, Albania and Germany.
A team of 10 forensic specialists, anthropologists, a photographer and a mortuary specialist from the Army Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base will leave tomorrow on a two-month deployment in Belgium and Albania.
An additional 13-member team will head to Germany to conduct investigative and recovery operations at two sites.
The Army said the team assigned to Germany will first concentrate on finding the remains of nine crewmen from the 856th Bombardment Squadron, 492nd Bombardment Group, who were shot down near Westergeln. The B-24J Liberator crew was in a formation with 13 other bombers when it was attacked by German fighters in the summer of 1944.
Its other effort will be in what was once East Germany, in Elsnig, to search for the remains of a P-38 J Lightning fighter pilot from the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group. The plane was lost during a bombing mission in April 1945.
The other recovery operation will begin in Retie, Belgium, and then travel to several other crash sites in Shepr, Albania.
The Belgian operation is to search for the remains of a pilot of a C-47A Skytrain from the 9th Troop Carrier Command that was shot down in the fall of 1944.
In Albania the search will be for five Americans and one British soldier who were on a C-47A that was conducting a resupply mission during the summer of 1944.
The aircraft was from the 28th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group. There were reports that Albanian partisans recovered the remains of the crew and buried them in a churchyard. Access to Albania was restricted after World War II, and the Army only recently got information on the burial sites.
All the recovered remains and artifacts will be brought back to Hickam where analysis and the identification process, which could take years, will take place.
