(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – More than 80 years after he was killed in a flying mission during World War II, an airman from Chicago has been accounted for.
On Aug. 1, 1943, a B-24 Liberator aircraft was hit by enemy fire and crashed as it took part in the largest bombing mission against oil fields and refineries in Romania. The plane’s co-pilot was 24-year-old Edward Barnett, a 2nd Air Force lieutenant.
His remains were not identified for decades. But in recent years, military authorities began collecting remains of airmen who had not been identified and sent them to a lab in Nebraska. In May, they were able to account for Barnett through a variety of methods, including mitochondrial DNA analysis, officials said.
His family has been notified. A funeral at Arlington National Cemetery is being planned, officials said.
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