WASHINGTON — Nearly eight decades after a 21-year-old Florida airman was killed in World War II, his remains are headed back to the Sunshine State for burial.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Monday that the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Pharis E. Weekley of Bradley Junction, Florida, have been accounted for.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft that Weekley was serving as the navigator was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE. It was the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
The DPAA said the Florida airman's remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), which searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
The AGRC could not identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
DPAA then began exhuming service members in 2017 who were believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.
Weekley's remains were accounted for July 12, 2022.
The DPAA said scientists used DNA evidence to help identify Weekley's remains.
He will be buried in Avon Park, Florida, on May 20, 2023.