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ID Announcements

Press Release | Jan. 13, 2025

Airman Accounted for from WWII (Lord, L.)

WASHINGTON  –  

WASHINGTON—The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Loring E. Lord, 28, of Sommerville, Massachusetts, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 18, 2024.

Lord’s family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.

In March 1945, Lord was a member of the 642nd Bombardment Squadron, 409th Bombardment Group, 9th Bombardment Division, 9th Air Force. He was a gunner aboard an A-26B “Invader”, when his aircraft was hit by heavy anti-aircraft fire during a bombing mission to Duelmen, Germany. Airmen aboard other aircraft flying in formation witnessed the A-26B lose altitude, crash and explode. There was no indication that anyone escaped the crash, and the crew was reported Missing In Action.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. During their investigations, AGRC members interviewed local residents and officials for information about missing American servicemen. In 1949, they visited villages between Velen and Dulmen, including Groß Reken, where a former police chief reported seeing an American plane go down after one of its wings was shot off. Mr. Heinrich Mels, reported the German Wehrmacht immediately secured the crash site, and buried several airmen in the local cemetery.

Earlier in April 1945, those remains were exhumed when U.S. Army forces occupied the town. Designated X-273 and X-274 Margraten, they were identified as crewmembers aboard Lord’s aircraft. This prompted a renewed search of the crash site outside Groß Reken, where investigators located several aircraft parts. Unfortunately, no other remains were located.

In 2014, DPAA historians received information from a German researcher, Adolf Hagedorn, about a possible crash site he believed could be associated with Lord’s aircraft. A DPAA investigation team met with Hagedorn and reviewed his extensive research, and the possible crash site. Later in 2018, after several recovery missions, DPAA excavations located identification media for one of Lord’s crewmembers, and possible osseous remains. These collected materials were then sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification.

To identify Lord’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial genome sequence analysis.

Lord’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hombourg, Belgium, 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.

Lord will be buried in Everette, Massachusetts on a date 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. DPAA is also grateful to Adolf Hagedorn for his research and assistance.

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