News-Info-Alerts

Re: Russian Crash Crew Buried at Arlington

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: November 24, 2003

"The Olympian, Olympia Washington
Saturday, November 22, 2003

World War II soldiers' remains recovered from Russia, buried in U.S.


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANCHORAGE -- The remains of seven servicemen whose plane crashed in Russia after taking off from Alaska during World War II were buried Thursday in Arlington National Cemetery.

The group burial was conducted with full military honors, the Department of Defense said in a news release.

The servicemen were aboard a Navy aircraft that left Attu Island in Alaska's Aleutian Islands on March 25, 1944, and headed for enemy targets in the Kurile Island of Japan.

The aircraft was part of a five-plane flight that encountered bad weather during the mission. The defense department identified the servicemen as: Lt. Walter S. Whitman Jr. of Philadelphia; Lt. j.g. John W. Hanlon Jr. of Worcester, Mass.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Clarence C. Fridley of Manhattan, Mont.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald G. Lewallen of Omaha, Neb.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Jack J. Parlier of Decatur, Ill.; Petty Officer 3rd Class Samuel L. Crown Jr. of Columbus, Ohio; and Petty Officer 3rd Class James S. Palko of Superior, Wis.

Only one of the five bombers accomplished the mission. Two of the other planes turned back, while a fourth crashed soon after takeoff, according to a Navy casualty office in Millington, Tenn.

According to the Defense Department, Whitman and his crew took off in a PV-1 Ventura bomber from their base on Attu Island. About six hours into the mission, the base notified Whitman by radio of his plane's bearing. There was no contact after that.

When the plane failed to return from the mission, a search was conducted in an area extending 200 miles from Attu.

In January 2000, representatives of a U.S.-Russia joint commission of prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action received a report about a Soviet geologist team that had found wreckage of a U.S. aircraft on the eastern Kamchatka Peninsula in 1962.

Later in 2000, specialists from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, along with members of the commission, found the wreckage and some human remains.

The team returned to excavate the site in 2001. Additional remains were recovered, along with other items belonging to the crew.

Scientists at the lab used a wide range of forensic identification techniques, including mitochondrial DNA testing, to confirm that the remains were those of the World War II crew.

The news of the discovery was likely squelched because it was made at the height of the Cold War, said Ken Terry, who heads the POW-MIA section of the Navy casualty office.

©2003 The Olympian"