Recent posts

#1
General Discussion / Re: Coming Home
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - December 29, 2023, 06:37:31 PM
WW2 soldier ID-ed nearly 80 years later.
#2
General Discussion / Re: Coming Home
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - May 29, 2023, 10:34:53 AM
An Army Air Force pilot from Pennsylvania killed during World War II has been accounted for almost eight decades later, military authorities said.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said last week that 2nd Lt. James Litherland, 25, of South Williamsport was accounted for in March.

In February 1944, Litherland was co-piloting a B-17F Flying Fortress that was struck by anti-aircraft fire after a bombing raid on a German V-2 rocket site in Bois-Coquerel, France. Three airmen parachuted to safety but Litherland and six other crew members were still on board when the plane crashed near Le Translay, France, authorities said.

Six sets of remains were recovered near the crash site but only five were identified. In 2018, more material was recovered from the crash site and the unknown remains were exhumed from a cemetery in France. Dental and anthropological analysis and DNA evidence was used to identify the remains as those of Litherland, officials said.

Litherland's daughter, Suzanne Walker, called the efforts to identify his remains "amazing," PennLive.com reported. Born on the day of the crash—"I imagine the grief of my mother"—Walker said she learned the recovery team used Google maps to locate the crash site and did a hand dig to find the remains, which included one of his dog tags she now has.

"That was the biggest surprise," she said. "I never expected it."

Walker said she has little memorabilia about her father and hopes someone comes forward with pictures or other items. Through her research, she has learned he was an outdoorsman and with friends built a toboggan slide on the side of the mountain near their home.

She thinks about "what he may have been." He would now be a great-grandfather.

Litherland will be laid to rest in Williamsport. Walker said she had the opportunity to have her father buried in France but "wanted him to be with his family." His father and grandfather are buried in Wildwood Cemetery, where there is a headstone for him, she said.

Literland's name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupré, Belgium, along with others still missing from WWII. Military authorities say a rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been accounted for.You cannot view this attachment.
#3
Hobby Discussion / Bee keeping
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - May 28, 2023, 12:13:27 PM
Any bee keepers out there.  Very enjoyable hobby!
#4
General Discussion / Re: New Page on My Website
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - April 29, 2023, 04:04:29 PM
Indeed! Fun to go catch them also.
#5
General Discussion / Re: New Page on My Website
Last post by liver - March 10, 2023, 06:33:03 PM
Cool!  You ate some of the best Salmon in the World!
#6
General Discussion / Re: New Page on My Website
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - February 21, 2023, 05:08:50 PM
Nice photos of Alaska.  I did a 4 year tour there in Fairbanks 1977 to 1981 flying Chinooks.  Fished the Copper River in the Chitina area.  Many pleasant memories.
#7
General Discussion / New Page on My Website
Last post by liver - February 20, 2023, 04:58:16 PM
Greetings everyone, I am beginning a new page on my website dedicated to my tour with the 2/1 cav.  I was in the 1st platoon under Sgt. Kofalvi 69-70. C'mon by and watch it grow! There also are  stories of fishing on the Copper River in Alaska and a Boat wreck on the Columbia River Bar.  After leaving Vietnam, my life did not get any less dangerous!   https://www.balladofcalypso.com/about-3-1     Enjoy!  Liver
#8
General Discussion / Re: Coming Home
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - July 15, 2022, 05:27:31 PM
The family of an Army Air Force pilot has finally received his remains, 79 years after he was shot down in Eastern Europe during World War II.

According to CBS News, Frank Ardith Norris' relatives said he was killed in Romania on August 1, 1943, during an aerial bombing mission targeting the Nazis' oil supplies. His remains could not be recovered for decades, and his family had to bury an empty casket in a family cemetery in Quinlan.


The family's hope of ever getting Norris' remains had all but completely faded when the Army contacted them in 2015 and asked for their DNA. The DNA was tested against bone fragments recently recovered by the Army and found to be a match.

Frank's nephew, Steve Norris, said that the recovery of his uncle's body has given the entire family closure because they can finally stop wondering where he is.

"There was always that wonder in the family, I think, for my grandmother and grandfather, and yes, we always wondered if he was in Romania," Steve recalled. "We suspected he was, but we just didn't know exactly where."

Steve described Norris as a "23-year-old farm boy" who risked his life for his country. He was the fifth of seven children.

As announced by the Herald Banner, a memorial service will be held for Norris on April 30. The U.S. Army will be in attendance to provide full military honors.

The memorial service will be held at Grace Baptist Church, located at 1029 East Quinlan Parkway, at 2 p.m. Norris' remains will be buried in the Paynetown Cemetery next to his parents, siblings, and other family members.

Norris is survived by nieces and nephews. The war veteran left behind multiple medals and decorations, some of which were awarded to him after his death. His nephew Steve says the medals are the family's prized possessions.   
#9
General Discussion / Re: Coming Home
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - July 15, 2022, 05:11:55 PM
Remains of WWII soldier found in Germany are identified
Human remains found in a cemetery in Belgium have been identified as those of a U.S. Army sergeant from Connecticut who went missing in Germany during World War II

ByDAVE COLLINS Associated Press
August 26, 2021, 11:03 AM

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HARTFORD, Conn. -- Human remains found in a cemetery in Belgium have been identified as those of a U.S. Army sergeant from Connecticut who went missing in Germany during World War II, U.S. officials announced Thursday.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said testing showed the remains were those of Sgt. Bernard Sweeney of Waterbury. His body was disinterred in 2019 from Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, where it was buried with other unidentified soldiers after having been recovered from a minefield near Kleinhau, Germany, in 1946.

The identification was announced the same day that the agency the remains of a World War II pilot whose body was lost in Europe's Adriatic Sea have been recovered. The remains of U.S. A rmy Air Forces 2nd Lt. Ernest N. Vienneau were accounted for in April. He will be buried in his hometown of Millinocket, Maine, on Oct. 9. Vienneau was 25 at the time of his death.

Sweeney, 22, was reporting missing in action on Dec. 16, 1944, after his unit battled German forces in the Hurtgen Forest near the Belgian border, the agency said. He was assigned to Company I, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division.

Sweeney's great-niece, Tammy Hynes, his oldest, closest living relative, said her family is delighted over the identification, and thankful for the military's efforts. Sweeney was her grandfather's brother.

"I have some pride there and some really good feelings about what he did for all of our country, and the fact that they went to these great lengths to identify him and honor him in the way I think he should be honored for what he did, for giving his life for our great country," said Hynes, 54, of Cape Coral, Florida. "I really wished my dad was still alive to know this."

Hynes said funeral and burial services are still being planned. She said her family is trying to find the grave of Sweeney's mother, who apparently killed herself after being told her son died in the war, and bury him next to her.

After her father died five years ago, Hynes said she was going through his belongings and found letters Sweeney wrote during the war. She said he wrote about women he wanted to marry when he got home, being promoted to sergeant and other topics.

Within the past several years, the military has see n a surge in identifications of U.S. service members who had been classified as missing in action. In 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of another soldier killed in the Hurtgen Forest battle, Army Sgt. Melvin Anderson of Omaha, Nebraska.

The Army has called the Hurtgen Forest battle one of the longest and deadliest for U.S. troops during World War II. It ran from September 1944 to February 1945, and more than 33,000 U.S. troops were killed or wounded.

After the war ended, the American Graves Registration Command was assigned to investigate and recover missing American personnel in Europe. It performed several investigations in the Hurtgen area but wasn't able to find Sweeney's remains. He was declared non-recoverable in 1951.

More than six decades later, a historian for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency studying unresolved American losses in the Hurtgen area determined that one of the unidentified remains recovered from the minefield near Kleinhau possibly were those of Sweeney, the agency said.

His body was exhumed from the cemetery in April 2019 and sent to the agency's lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for identification. Scientists positively identified Sweeney in June after using dental and anthropological analysis, collecting circumstantial evidence and testing DNA from the remains with a DNA sample provided by one of Sweeney's relatives.
#10
General Discussion / Re: Coming Home
Last post by Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69) - July 15, 2022, 05:10:16 PM
MILLINOCKET, Maine -- The remains of a World War II pilot whose body was lost in Europe's Adriatic Sea have been recovered and will be buried in his home state of Maine, the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday.

The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Ernest N. Vienneau were accounted for in April and will be buried in his hometown of Millinocket on Oct. 9, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said. Vienneau was 25 at the time of his death.

Vienneau had been based in Italy, and a bomber on which he served as co-pilot came under fire over present-day Slovenia on Nov. 6, 1944, the Defense Department said. Vienneau was mortally wounded, and the pilot was forced to ditch the bomber off Vis Island, Croatia. His body could not be recovered from the sinking bomber, the department said.

The wreck of the bomber was found in a dive in 2017, the department said. Possible remains were recovered and submitted for analysis in fall 2020, it said. Dental records and other evidence confirmed they belonged to Vienneau.

A rosette will be placed next to Vienneau's name on Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy, indicating he has been accounted for, the Defense Department said.

The identification came the same day the defense department said human remains found in a cemetery in Belgium have been identified as those of a U.S. Army sergeant from Connecticut who went missing in Germany during World War II. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said testing showed the remains were those of Sgt. Bernard Sweeney of Waterbury.