WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. William A. Jones, 26, who was killed during World War II, was accounted for on June 10, 2026.
In the winter of 1944, Jones was assigned to the 718th Bombardment Squadron, 449th Bombardment Group, in Italy. On Jan. 30, he was serving as the assistant radio operator aboard a B-24 Liberator bomber on a mission to Udine, Italy. The plane was shot down while returning from its mission and was last sighted north of the Isle of Morgo off the Italian coast near the town of Grado. Three crew members made it out of the plane before the crash, but only one survived. The other seven members, including Jones, were believed to have still been in the aircraft when it crashed.
Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Service, U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American service members in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. AGRS investigators believed the aircraft crashed into the Adriatic Sea, so did not explore the marshy areas near Grado for wreckage. No remains recovered in the vicinity of Grado were ever associated with Jones, and he was declared non-recoverable in August 1949.
This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Jones'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 their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.