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From CILHI Web Site!

Posted by Paul McMillan on Thu Sep 05, 2002 07:50:01 AM

In reply top Who will they be sending the bill? posted by Cees Broere on Thu Sep 05, 2002 07:38:28 AM


Could the Bulgarian P-38 be the same search??

June 28, 2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Release #02-010
RECOVERY TEAMS HEAD TO EUROPE TO BRING HOME FALLEN AMERICAN WWII SERVICEMEN
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii - Search and recovery operations will begin shortly in Europe for American service members unaccounted for from World War II.

Two recovery teams consisting of about 20 personnel total, will deploy from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) Monday, July 1, to four sites believed to contain the remains of servicemen lost during WWII. One team will deploy for approximately three weeks for recovery operations at a site in Oberhof, Germany, then move to an aircraft crash site in Grulska Padina, Bulgaria. The other team will begin recovery operations of a crash site in Kehlen, Luxembourg, then move to a site near Niederwampach, Luxembourg.

Each CILHI team consists of members with specialized skills in forensic anthropology, logistics, photography, explosive ordnance disposal, medicine, and mortuary affairs.

The CILHI team deploying to Germany will attempt to locate the remains of a P-51 pilot that was shot down Sept. 11, 1944. The pilot was on a fighter escort mission for the 55th Fighter Group. The 55th FG encountered the largest number of Luftwaffe defensive fighters since D-Day, resulting in a massive air battle and the loss of 84 U.S. aircraft and 174 German fighters.

The recovery operation in Bulgaria is focused on the pilot of a P-38 from the 71st Fighter Squadron. The pilot was returning from a mission in Ploesti, Romania in June 1944 when the squadron was intercepted by German fighters. In Luxembourg, the search and recovery team will attempt to recover a pilot of a P-47D aircraft which was lost in December 1944 while on an armed reconnaissance mission. He was shot down near Kehlen. The CILHI team will also perform a recovery operation of the pilot of another P-47D that went down a week later near Niederwampach.

The mission of CILHI is to search for, recover and identify remains of American military personnel and American civilian personnel unaccounted for from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. CILHI also performs other humanitarian missions as directed. The Central Identification Laboratory maintains 18 search and recovery teams and has the largest staff of forensic anthropologists in the world.

World War II recovery operations typically consists of teams deploying numerous times a year to such places as Europe, Papua New Guinea, China, the Pacific Islands, and many other locations where American service members are still missing. There are more than 78,000 American service members unaccounted for from World War II. Since 1973, the CILHI has identified and returned to their families more than 1,045 American servicemen formerly listed as unaccounted for from previous wars.

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