An ongoing effort involving Indiana University of Pennsylvania students and faculty has borne fruit, with the identification of an American airman killed in action over Germany 80 years ago this week during World War II.
IUP officials said this week that recovery efforts in association with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, led to the identification of First Lt. Wylie W. Leverett.
As announced by DPAA in August 2024, Leverett was killed on a bombing mission over Mannheim, Germany, on Dec. 30, 1944, as pilot of a B-17G Flying Fortress known as Fuddy Duddy.
It was part of the 708th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, Fourth Combat Bomb Wing, Third Air Division, Eighth Air Force in the European Theater.
IUP officials said the university has had a cooperative agreement with the DPAA and Henry M. Jackson Foundation for Military Medicine since 2021, and was involved since 2022 with recovery efforts that led to the identification of Leverett.
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