The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the
remains of a U.S. serviceman, lost in World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his
family for burial with full military honors along with his fellow crew member.
Army Air Force Sgt. Dominick J. Licari, 31, of Frankfort, N.Y., will be buried on Aug. 6, in
Frankfort, N.Y. On March 13, 1944, Licari was a crew member of an A-20G Havoc bomber that failed
to return to base in a country now known as Papua New Guinea. The aircraft crashed after attacking
enemy targets on the island. Licari died along with crewmember 2nd Lt. Valorie L. Pollard. In 2012 the
A-20G crash site in the mountains of Papua New Guinea was excavated and the remains of Licari and
Pollard were recovered.
To identify the remains of Licari, scientists from Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used
circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools such as dental comparisons and
mitochondrial DNA, which matched Licari’s brother.
There are more than 400,000 American service members that were killed during WWII, and
the remains of more than 73,000 were never recovered or identified.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing
Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.