Remains found in New Guinea in 2001 identified as Haileyville grad
By JAMES BEATY, senior editor
As a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, Haileyville High School graduate John Hancock loved to fly.
Soon, members of the U.S. Army will accompany his remains on one final flight, so he can finally be buried with dignity and full military honors in a McAlester cemetery.
When the phone rang recently at Debbie Fuller's home near Indianola, she picked it up and learned the answer to a 62-year-old mystery.
Finally, she and her brother learned with certainty the fate of their uncle, who had served during the war on a B-17 bomber and had been listed as missing in action after the plane and its crew never returned from a mission in 1942.
"The Department of Defense called me," Fuller said. "They said they had made a positive identification of my uncle."
Fuller and her brother, McAlester resident John M. Hancock - who is named after his uncle - are waiting for more information from the military.
The wreckage of the bomber which carried Hancock and seven other crew members had been found by a U.S. Army team in New Guinea in 2001, after being led to the site by a local villager.
Fuller said some of the local people had apparently known about the site for years.
"They had seen something shiny in the trees," she said. Because of their beliefs, "They had never disturbed it."
Although some of John Hancock's personal effects had been found in the wreckage, the family still had no certainty of what might have happened after the crash.
About three years ago, Army personnel took blood and DNA samples from the late Walter Hancock - Fuller and John M. Hancock's father, Marian Hancock was married to Walter. He had always wondered what had happened to the older brother whom he missed so much and he hoped the DNA testing would lead to a positive identification of his brother's remains, she recalled.
Walter Hancock died not long afterward, long before the test results were known.
Even after the discovery of the wreckage in New Guinea, along with a bracelet engraved with the name of John Hancock, remnants of flight jackets and rusted .45-caliber pistols, his family hadn't been sure of his fate. Had he survived the crash?
"That's a thought I always had," John M. Hancock said. "Did he get amnesia? Could he be living on an island?"
Now, he has the answer to those questions.
"It's finally coming to an end," he said.
Fuller said the family is waiting for the Army to transport the remains to McAlester, something she and her brother expect to occur sometime this month.
They plan to have their uncle buried at Memory Gardens Cemetery. For now, they are trying to be patient while awaiting further word from the military
John M. Hancock noted that family members have waited more than 60 years to learn the fate of his uncle, and, if he had died, to have him buried with dignity and respect.
"We've waited this long," he said. "We can wait a few more weeks."
© 2004 McAlester News Capital & Democrat