The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced recently that Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. John E. McLauchlen Jr., 25, of Detroit, Michigan, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Jan. 25, 2024.
In December 1943, McLauchlen was a member of the 436th Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bombardment Group during World War II. On Dec. 1, he was serving as the pilot of a B-24J Liberator bomber while on a bombing mission from Panagarh, India, to the Insein Railroad Yard north of Rangoon, Burma. After reaching the designated target, McLauchlen’s plane was reportedly hit by anti-aircraft fire, causing the left wing to burst into flames.
Witnesses from another aircraft noted seeing McLauchlen’s aircraft enter a steep dive while disappearing below the clouds. It was noted that 3 enemy aircraft were also seen following the crippled plane into the clouds, and no further contact was made with the Liberator. The remains of the crew were not recovered or identified after the war, and they were all later declared Missing In Action.
In 1947 the American Grave Registration Service (AGRS) recovered the remains of what they believed to be eight individuals involved in a potential B-24 Liberator crash near Yodayadet, Burma. According to local witnesses, there were no survivors from this aviation loss and Japanese forces had instructed local villagers to bury the remains in two large graves.
The AGRS designated the remains recovered from these graves as Unknowns X-505A, X-505B, X-505C, X-505D, X-505E, X-505F, X-505G, and X-505H Barrackpore (X-505A-H). The remains could not be scientifically identified at the time and were interred as Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), Honolulu, Hawaii, also known as the Punchbowl.
In early 2019, DPAA received a family disinterment request for Unknown X-505A-H based on past attempts to associate the remains with other unresolved losses from southern Burma. DPAA historians reviewing the associated files believed a more likely association for the remains was possible in X-505A-H. The Department of Defense approved the disinterment request, and in October, 2020, DPAA personnel exhumed the remains from NMCP where they were accessioned into the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify McLauchlen’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
2nd Lt. McLauchlen’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the Philippines, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
2nd Lt. McLauchlen will be buried in Summer 2024, on Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.
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