MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — The body of a Middletown Air Force Lieutenant killed when his plane was shot down in World War II will return home to be buried after being identified through DNA testing.
The U.S. Department of Defense's POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that 27-year-old Dan Corson was officially accounted for on Sept. 22. His family was notified in October, officials said.
Pieces of the plane have been displayed at the Middletown Historical Society museum for five years after curator Sam Ashworth helped procure the items from a museum in France.
A wing of one of the plane's propellers, discovered roughly three decades after the crash, serves as the center piece of the display.
"It was packed up by a friend over there, shipped over to my house, and we brought it down here," he said.
Ashworth said Corson's body being identified 81 years after his death is proof that history is a living tale with ties to the present.
"It's amazing," he said.
Corson was assigned to the 401st Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, Eighth Airforce in December 1942. On Dec. 20, 1942, Corson was co-piloting a B-17F "Flying Fortress" that was nicknamed Danellen.
The plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire after a bombing raid on a German aircraft factory at Romilly-sur-Seine in France; the plane was last spotted spinning toward the ground and crashing near the French village of Bernières-sur-Seine.
Only one airman was able to successfully parachute from the crashing plane; eight crew members, including Corson, were still on board when it crashed.
The War Department issued a finding of death for Corson one year later, on Dec. 20, 1943.
His remains and those of three others were buried at the Evreux cemetery under the designations X-83, X-84, X-85 and X-86 St. Andre.
Those remains were interred after the war by the American Graves Registration Command, but they were unable to be identified at the time and were transferred to the Normandy American Cemetery.
In 2011, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began investigating the plane crash after it was contacted by family of a Danellen crew member.
"It can take years," said DPAA Spokesman Sean Everette.
In 2019, the Department of Defense exhumed the remains designated X-83, X-85 and X-86 St. Andre. After an anthropological analysis, a mitochondrial DNA test and a Y-chromosome DNA analysis, Corson's remains were identified.
Until now, his name has been recorded on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery in England, along with others still missing from WWII; now, a rosette symbol will be placed next to his name to indicate he's been found.
Everette said every soldier is made a promise when they agree to serve their nation that they will not be left behind, and this serves as a reminder that the DPAA is always searching.
"It is our mandate," he said. "We will always keep looking until every service member is found."
Corson will be buried in Middletown on a date to be determined.
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