The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains
of nine U.S. servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being
returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
They are 1st Lt. David P. McMurray, of Melrose, Mass.; 1st Lt. Raymond Pascual, of
Houston, Texas; 2nd Lt. Millard C. Wells, Jr., of Paris, Ky.; Tech. Sgt. Leonard J. Ray, of Upper
Falls, Md.; Tech. Sgt. Hyman L. Stiglitz, of Boston, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Robert L. Cotey, of
Vergennes, Vt.; Staff Sgt. Francis E. Larrivee, of Laconia, N.H.; Staff Sgt. Robert J. Flood, of
Neelyton, Pa.; and Staff Sgt. Walter O. Schlosser, of Lake City, Mich.; all U.S. Army Air Forces.
Ray and Flood were buried last week in Harford County, Md. and Dry Run, Pa., respectively. The
burials of the other servicemen will be at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. on
a date to be determined.
Representatives from the Army met with the next-of-kin of these men in their hometowns
to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military
honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.
On July 7, 1944, the men were aboard a B-24J Liberator that departed North Pickenham,
England, on a mission to bomb a German aircraft factory near Bernburg, Germany. The plane
was last seen by U.S. aircrew members in that vicinity. Captured records revealed that it had
crashed near Westeregeln, about 20 miles northwest of the target in what would become the
Soviet sector of a post-war-divided Germany.
In 2001, a group of German citizens interested in recovering wartime relics and remains
learned of a potential crash site south of Westeregeln. Later that year and in 2002, the group
found the site and uncovered human remains from what appeared to be two burial locations. The
remains and other personal effects, including identification tags, were turned over to U.S.
officials.
In 2003, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team excavated the crash site
and recovered additional remains, identification tags and non-biological material evidence.
Among dental records, other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used
mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains.
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.