World War II bomber pilot from Pittsburgh identified after 80 years
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Gilbert Haldeen Myers, a World War II soldier from Pittsburgh missing in action for just over 80 years.
Myers, 27, was identified on Aug. 10. He had been unaccounted for since July 10, 1943, when he served as a copilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 381st Bombardment Squadron, 310th Bombardment Group.
The DPAA said Myers was on a bombing mission against
Sciacca Air Drome, Sicily, when his B-25 Mitchell (serial number 42-64522) released its bombs and was struck by antiaircraft fire. The B-25 bomber lost altitude and crashed.
Witnesses saw one crew member bail out of the bomber before the crash, but there were no records of survivors or of fliers taken prisoner.
Officials with the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) discovered that after the crash, Italian civilians recovered the body of the pilot and buried him in the Sciacca municipal cemetery. American
investigators identified that pilot in September 1943. However, no remains were found at the crash site to identify anyone else.
A civilian witness reported that German soldiers removed three bodies from the crash site, but couldn’t provide any information on where they were taken, the DPAA said.
In March 2017, DPAA investigators located the crash site using coordinates provided by earlier AGRS investigators in the 1940s. Subsequent efforts in 2021 and 2022 with the DPAA and personnel from the
Cranfield University Recovery and Identification of Conflict Team recovered additional plane wreckage pieces and human remains.
The DPAA Laboratory established the remains as Myers.
Myers is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. The DPAA says a rosette will now be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Myers will be buried on Nov. 10 in St. Petersburg, Fla.