WWII airman’s remains buried

WASHINGTON – The remains of a World War II bomber crewman, lost during a raid over Europe in 1944, were buried with military honors Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

Staff Sgt. Robert W. McKee of Garvey, Calif., was a gunner on a B-24 Liberator that took off from Pantanella, Italy, on Dec. 17, 1944, to bomb targets near Blechhammer, Germany, according to a statement from the Defense Department’s POW/Missing Personnel Office.

The plane crashed in Hungary, and McKee and another crewman were killed. The other nine crewmen bailed out and survived.

The remains of the other crewman were found after the war in a cemetery in nearby Felsosegesd, Hungary, but McKee’s fate remained a mystery. His identification tag was found buried with human remains from another plane crash near Vienna.

Analysts determined those remains were not McKee’s but another flyer’s, prompting researchers to conclude that McKee must have lost his tag while flying on that plane on another mission before it crashed.

In 1992, an undertaker found the remains of an American in a cemetery in BJohJonye, Hungary. Information from a Hungarian researcher suggested they might be McKee’s, and American scientists matched McKee’s DNA with two of his relatives.

About 88,000 Americans are listed as missing from all U.S. conflicts. Of those, 78,000 are from World War II.