The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that three U.S. servicemen, missing from World War II, have been accounted for and their remains are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William P. Cook, 27, of Alameda, Calif., Staff Sgt. Maurice J. Fevold, 21, of Chicago, and Sgt. Eric M. Honeyman, 21, of Alameda, Calif., have been accounted for and will be buried with full military honors. Fevold will be buried Oct. 20 in Badger, Iowa and Cook will be buried Oct. 26 in Oakland, Calif. Honeyman will be buried at a future date still to be determined.
On Dec. 23, 1944, Cook along with five other B-26G Marauder crew members took off from Saint Quentin, France, on a mission to bomb an enemy-held bridge in Eller, Germany. The aircraft was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire near Seffern, Germany, near the border with Belgium.
Following World War II, the Army Graves Registration Command (AGRC) conducted extensive field investigations and was unable to locate the aircraft and the crew. In May 1949, AGRC concluded the crew members were unrecoverable.
In 2006, a group of aviation researchers located the wreckage of a B-26G near Allmuthen, Belgium and notified the U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs Activity – Europe. In 2007, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team investigated the site and recommended it for excavation.
In 2012 and 2013, JPAC teams excavated the crash site and recovered human remains and non-biological material evidence.
To identify Cook’s remains, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched Cook’s maternal-line cousins.
To identify Fevold’s remains scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched Fevold’s maternal-line niece.
To identify Honeyman’s remains, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, partial Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) DNA, which matched Honeyman’s paternal-line cousins.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPMO website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.