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News Release

Press Release | Dec. 13, 2022

Airman Accounted For From World War II (Uhrin, M.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Michael Uhrin, 21, of Metuchen, New Jersey, killed during World War II, was accounted for May 12, 2022.

In October 1943, Uhrin was assigned to 369th Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bombardment Group, 40th Combat Wing, 8th Air Force in the European Theater. On Oct. 14, the B-17F Flying Fortress bomber on which he was serving as the radio operator was flying a mission to Schweinfurt, Germany, when it was shot down by enemy fighters near Rommelhausen and Langenbergheim, Hessen, Germany. Uhrin’s bomber was one of 60 aircraft to be lost during the mission. The surviving B-17 crew members said Uhrin was killed before the plane crashed, and none witnessed him bail out. His death was confirmed shortly after the crash, but there is no record of his burial location.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted investigations around Rommelhausen and Langenbergheim, but couldn’t find any concrete evidence associating recovered remains with Uhrin. He was declared non-recoverable in April 1955.

DPAA historians are conducting ongoing, comprehensive research focused on air losses over Germany. As a result, one set of remains, designated X-1660 St. Avold, was determined to be a strong candidate for association with Uhrin. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery in Belgium, were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

To identify Uhrin’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR), and austosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Uhrin’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the United Kingdom, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Uhrin will be buried in Matuchen, New Jersey on date yet to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission and to the U.S. Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Uhrin’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001Fd5R0EAJ.