WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Loyst M. Towner, 24, missing in action during World War II, was accounted for Aug. 26, 2025.
In March 1944, Towner was assigned to the 64th Fighter Squadron, 57th Fighter Group in Italy. On March 24, he was piloting a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter during a dive-bombing mission with other P-47s near Civitacecchia, a coastal city northwest of Rome. After the planes attacked the target, they were engaged by enemy aircraft. Towner was last seen at 11:15 a.m. with two enemy planes on his tail. He never returned to base and the area in which he disappeared was under German control, so an immediate search could not be conducted. There is no record he was ever a prisoner of war. The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death for Towner in August 1945.
This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Towner's case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.
For additional information on the War 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, www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.