Remains of 2 missing airmen have been accounted for 70 yrs after they disappeared when their plane went down over Papua New Guinea during WWII. William Bernier and Bryant Poulsen were identified through DNA and other evidence collected from the crash site in a forest on the Pacific Island nation, said US Air Force authorities.
Bernier was from Augusta, MT and on 10 Apr 1944, their B24D Liberator, nicknamed "Hot Garters", took off from an airbase in eastern Papua. It was one of 60 B-24s tasked with bombing anti-aircraft positions around Japanese airfields.
Bernier was the bombardier, stationed in a glass cockpit in the aircraft's nose, and responsible for sighting and releasing its bombs. Their plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Madang. Four of the 12-member crew exited the aircraft after it had been hit and those captured by the Japanese were executed. The other four, including Bernier, went down with the plane. The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission; and those missing are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.
Bernier's niece, Sandi Jones, plans to bury his remains in the Augusta, MT cemetery in September 2014. He enlisted as a private in the US Army Air Force on 10 Dec 1941. He was not married and worked in the forestry industry.
cenotaph at memorial#56786895
Bernier was from Augusta, MT and on 10 Apr 1944, their B24D Liberator, nicknamed "Hot Garters", took off from an airbase in eastern Papua. It was one of 60 B-24s tasked with bombing anti-aircraft positions around Japanese airfields.
Bernier was the bombardier, stationed in a glass cockpit in the aircraft's nose, and responsible for sighting and releasing its bombs. Their plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Madang. Four of the 12-member crew exited the aircraft after it had been hit and those captured by the Japanese were executed. The other four, including Bernier, went down with the plane. The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission; and those missing are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.
Bernier's niece, Sandi Jones, plans to bury his remains in the Augusta, MT cemetery in September 2014. He enlisted as a private in the US Army Air Force on 10 Dec 1941. He was not married and worked in the forestry industry.
cenotaph at memorial#56786895
Remains of 2 missing airmen have been accounted for 70 yrs after they disappeared when their plane went down over Papua New Guinea during WWII. William Bernier and Bryant Poulsen were identified through DNA and other evidence collected from the crash site in a forest on the Pacific Island nation, said US Air Force authorities.
Bernier was from Augusta, MT and on 10 Apr 1944, their B24D Liberator, nicknamed "Hot Garters", took off from an airbase in eastern Papua. It was one of 60 B-24s tasked with bombing anti-aircraft positions around Japanese airfields.
Bernier was the bombardier, stationed in a glass cockpit in the aircraft's nose, and responsible for sighting and releasing its bombs. Their plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Madang. Four of the 12-member crew exited the aircraft after it had been hit and those captured by the Japanese were executed. The other four, including Bernier, went down with the plane. The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission; and those missing are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.
Bernier's niece, Sandi Jones, plans to bury his remains in the Augusta, MT cemetery in September 2014. He enlisted as a private in the US Army Air Force on 10 Dec 1941. He was not married and worked in the forestry industry.
cenotaph at memorial#56786895
Bernier was from Augusta, MT and on 10 Apr 1944, their B24D Liberator, nicknamed "Hot Garters", took off from an airbase in eastern Papua. It was one of 60 B-24s tasked with bombing anti-aircraft positions around Japanese airfields.
Bernier was the bombardier, stationed in a glass cockpit in the aircraft's nose, and responsible for sighting and releasing its bombs. Their plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Madang. Four of the 12-member crew exited the aircraft after it had been hit and those captured by the Japanese were executed. The other four, including Bernier, went down with the plane. The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission; and those missing are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.
Bernier's niece, Sandi Jones, plans to bury his remains in the Augusta, MT cemetery in September 2014. He enlisted as a private in the US Army Air Force on 10 Dec 1941. He was not married and worked in the forestry industry.
cenotaph at memorial#56786895
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