Recently identified WWII vet to be buried
U.S. Army Air Force Tech. Sgt Kenneth J. Mckeeman, 23, of Brooklyn, New York, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Sept. 18, 2023, and is to be laid to rest in Connecticut, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Tsgt. Mckeeman will be buried in Middletown on June 7, according to the agency.
“In early 1944, Mckeeman was assigned to the 724th Bombardment Squadron, 451st Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force in the Mediterranean and European Theater,” the agency said in a statement. “On March 11, Mckeeman, a bombardier onboard a B-24D ‘Liberator’, was killed in action when his plane was hit by heavy anti-aircraft fire over Toulon, France.”
Mckeeman was “the radio operator on aB -24 Liberator (serial number 41-2725) that took off from San Pancrazio Air field, italy, carrying eleven crew members for a bombing mission against Toulon Harbor, France.”
“After dropping its payload, this Liberator took a direct hit by flak just behind the rear bomb bay. Others flying the mission reported seeing a large burst of flame shooting through the damaged Liberator’s waist windows before the aircraft fell out of control and broke in half,” according to the agency. “The two sections of the plane fell into the water. Witnesses reported seeing no parachutes before the crash and believed that there were no survivors.”
In June 2019, what would come to be identified as Mckeeman’s remains were exhumed from Rhône American Cemetery and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. Scientists determined the remains were Mckeeman by using anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA analysis by scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, according to the statement