The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William H. Melville, 20, of Minneapolis, killed during World War II, was accounted for July 3, 2020.
In the fall of 1943, Melville was a pilot assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group. On Oct. 28, he was piloting a P-39Q Airacobra fighter that took off from Wards Airdrome at Port Moresby, New Guinea on a combat mission alongside three other fighters for an armed patrol mission over the Nadzab area, northeastern New Guinea.
The flight experienced bad weather shortly into its patrol and his aircraft disappeared as did two others. Search and recovery efforts in the days following were unable to find any of the aircraft and found no wreckage associated with his aircraft.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service, the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, conducted exhaustive searches of battle areas and crash sites in New Guinea, concluding their search on Dec. 18, 1948.
Investigators could not find any evidence of Melville or his aircraft, and he was officially reported as killed in action as of April 4, 1949. He was declared non-recoverable June 27, 1949.
Between 1987 and 2019, DPAA and its predecessor organizations conducted several investigation and recovery missions in Papua New Guinea related to Melville and the two other pilots. A recovery team in 2019 found possible human remains and a .50 caliber machine gun with a serial number matching one of the guns on Melville’s fighter, as well as other material evidence.
To identify Melville’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Melville’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Melville will be buried July 16, 2021, in his hometown.
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