WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Charles W. McCook, 23, of Georgetown, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for on April 18, 2025.
McCook’s family recently received their full briefing on is identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In the summer of 1943, McCook was a member of 22nd Bombardment Squadron (Medium), 341st Bombardment Group (Medium), 10th Air Force during World War II. On Aug. 3, while serving as the pilot of a B-25C “Mitchell” on a low-altitude bombing raid in Meiktila, Burma, his aircraft crashed. Of the six individuals aboard the aircraft, two survived and were captured by Japanese forces, while the remaining four, including McCook, were killed. His remains were not recovered after the war, and he was declared missing in action.
In 1947 the American Grave Registration Service recovered four sets of remains, later designated X-282A-D, from a common grave near the village of Kyunpobin, Burma. According to local witnesses, the remains came from an “American crash.” The remains could not be identified at the time and were interred as Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In January 2022, after the Department of Defense approved DPAA’s disinterment request, all four sets of remains were exhumed from the Punchbowl and accessioned into the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify McCook’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological, and isotope analysis. Additionally, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis and mitochondrial genome sequencing data
McCook’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the Philippines, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
McCook will be buried in his hometown in August 2025.
For family and funeral information, call the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
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 or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Read McCook’s initial ID announcement here: McCook.