After nearly 80 years, a WWII pilot from Florida will finally receive a proper burial at home.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Alfred J. Hamwey was just 24 years old when he was reported missing in action on Jan. 20, 1945.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Hamwey was deployed to present-day Papua New Guinea to help neutralize the Japanese threat near Wewak, Territory of New Guinea, when friendly forces lost contact with the A-20G Havoc bomber he was piloting.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS), a military unit responsible for recovering missing American personnel in the Pacific Theater, conducted searches of battle areas and crash sites in New Guinea.
They concluded their search in late 1948 and, in June 1949, said they were unable to locate Hamwey and two other crew members' remains.
In the early 1980s, DPAA predecessors started researching and recovering service members from Papua New Guinea.
An Australian Defence Force Officer reported seeing an aircraft crash site in a swap in December 2011. Roughly six months prior, a local guide from nearby Wom Village discovered the site and claimed that human remains had been seen in the crash.
Between July 2015 and May 2016, DPAA began interviewing locals and collected crash materials, various life support items and possible osseous remains. In late 2022, a DPAA underwater recovery team conducted operations at the site and recovered possible human remains, which were sent to the DPAA laboratory for further review.
Finally, scientists used dental and anthropological analysis as well as material and circumstantial evidence to identify Hamwey's remains. He was marked accounted for on May 20, 2024, and his family "recently" received their full briefing on his identification.
Hamwey's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. A rosette will now be placed next to his name to indicate he has finally been accounted for.
He will be buried on September 12, 2024, in Jacksonville.
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