An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

News Release

Press Release | Aug. 2, 2013

WWII Soldier Identified (Licari)

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.