Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Sandini, A.)

Release No: 19-051 April 1, 2019
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WASHINGTON — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Alfred R. Sandini, 25, of Marlborough, Massachusetts, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Feb. 12, 2019.

(This identification was initially announced at Feb. 14, 2019.)

In February 1944, Sandini was a member of 22nd Bombardment Squadron, 341st Bombardment Group, and served as a radio gunner aboard a B-25C aircraft. On Feb. 15, 1944, the aircraft he was aboard crashed, most likely due to enemy anti-aircraft fire, near the Do Len Bridge in Thanh Hoa Province, French Indochina, now known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In November 2016, DPAA personnel began analyzing Unknown X-114 Schofield Mausoleum #2 for possible disinterment. The remains were initially recovered in northern French Indochina and interred at the American Military Cemetery in Kunming, China.

In August 2018, Unknown X-114 Schofield Mausoleum #2 was disinterred and the remains were sent to the laboratory for analysis.

To identify Sandini’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,731 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Sandini’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the Philippines, along with others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For family contact information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Sandini will be buried July 20, 2019, in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

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, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Sandini's personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000017uL3aEAE