MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (WXIX) – Hundreds of people came to a Middletown cemetery to pay their final respects to a World War II soldier whose remains were recently identified.

In a sea of ​​red, white and blue, around 200 people attended the funeral service for Middletown native 1st Lt. Dan W. Corson of the U.S. Army Air Force at Woodside Cemetery on Wednesday.

The remains of Corson, who was 27 at the time of his death, were identified on September 22, 2023, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

Corson was assigned to the 401st Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force in December 1942, the DPAA said.

The 27-year-old from Middletown was co-pilot of a B-17F “Flying Fortress”, named Danellen, on December 20, 1942, when the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire after a bombing raid on a German aircraft factory in Romilly-sur-Seine, France, according to the DPAA.

According to DPAA, there were nine pilots on board the Danellen, but only one managed to parachute out before the plane crashed near the village of Bernières-sur-Seine in France.

One year after the crash, on December 20, 1943, the War Department confirmed the death of First Lieutenant Corson, according to DPAA.

In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was assigned the task of recovering American personnel missing in the European theater of war, the DPAA explains.

The remains of four people could not be identified after the end of World War II and were buried in the Normandy American Cemetery.

A family member of a Danellen crew member contacted the Department of Defense in 2011 after visiting the crash site in France. There, according to the DPAA, the family member spoke with a witness who had artifacts from the Danellen.

After seeing the evidence, the DPAA investigation team went to Bernières-sur-Seine.

Investigators spoke to the same witness and learned that the crash site had since been destroyed.

Eight years later, in March 2019, the unidentified remains were exhumed from the Normandy American Cemetery.

Scientists finally succeeded in identifying Corson’s remains, the DPAA said.

Corson’s name is recorded on the Wall of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Cambridge, England, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been found.

According to Soldiers Walk, over 73,000 American soldiers from World War II remain missing.

According to DPAA data, the missing include five military personnel associated with Corson.

The missing persons include:

• Jackson M. Barbour
• First Lieutenant Bruce H. Brown
• Technical Sergeant Edwin D. Byrdic
• First Lieutenant Reeves S. Carper
• First Lieutenant Mark B. Connor

Do you see a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a recent news story? Send it here with a short description.

All rights reserved.