FORT KNOX, Ky. / KILLEEN, Texas (FOX 44) – The remains of a Soldier killed during World War II will be interred in Killeen on April 7, at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.
Graveside services for U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Wayne L. Dyer will be performed by Crotty Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Belton, preceding the interment.
U.S. Army Human Resources Command says Dyer was a native of Hobart, Oklahoma, and was assigned to the 569th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 13th Bombardment Wing, 3rd Air Division, 8th Air Force. He was navigating a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during a huge bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany, on May 29, 1944 – when his plane was shot down by enemy fighters roughly 28 miles northeast of Leipzig.
Dyer was among four of ten crew members who were unable to escape the plane before it crashed near Horst. He was 22 years old. Bodies recovered from the crash were believed to have been buried in a local cemetery. After the war, there was no evidence of Dyer being a prisoner of war or having survived. Subsequently, a Finding of Death was issued a year after the crash.
The American Graves Registration Command, who is charged with recovering the remains of fallen service members in the European Theater following the war, was unable to find Dyer’s remains prior to 1950. According to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command – worsening diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, who controlled this part of Germany at the time, prevented the AGRC from investigating further. Dyer was declared non-recoverable on April 21, 1953.
In July 2012, an investigation team with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command recovered evidence of a B-17 from the crash site. With permission from the current landowner, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency excavated the site between July 17 and August 12, 2019. Recovered possible material evidence and possible remains were eventually sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for scientific analysis.
U.S. Army Human Resources Command says Dyer was accounted for by the DPAA on September 9, 2022 – after his remains were identified using circumstantial and material evidence as well as dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Dyer’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery – an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hombourg, Belgium – along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information about 2nd Lt. Dyer, you can go here. To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving the country, you can visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or you can call (703) 699-1420/1169.