MONROE, La. (KTVE/KARD) -- The family of a Louisiana man listed as missing in action in World War II has closure after his remains were found and positively identified, officials said.
The Defense Department's POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Henry L. Stevens of Monroe, who was killed during World War II, was accounted for on Sept. 15, 2023. The announcement comes after Stevens's family was fully briefed recently, officials said.
According to officials, Stevens was assigned to the 557th Bombardment Squadron, 387th Bombardment Group, Ninth U.S. Air Force, in the European Theater of Operations. On Dec. 23, 1944, he was a crewmember aboard a B-26F “Marauder” aircraft, nicknamed "Shirley D," which was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Bitburg, Germany, while returning from a bombing raid.
During the incident, the plane took damage to the right engine causing a massive fire, and crewmen had to bail out. Survivors watched Shirley D crash near Winville, Belgium, with several crew members, including Stevens, still aboard.
According to officials, several Belgian residents recovered one set of remains from the crash site near Houmont and turned them over to American forces operating in the area a few days after the crash. American Graves Registration Service personnel initially identified the pilot, while the other set of remains remained unknown.
By Dec. 26, 1944, everyone from Stevens’s aircraft had been identified and accounted for except for Stevens, and he was declared non-recoverable. DPAA personnel returned to the crash site, where they recovered materials associated with the crashed B-26 in 2013.
In 2019, while working in conjunction with researchers from the University of Wisconsin, possible remains were located and sent to the DPAA laboratory for testing and possible identification. Officials confirmed that scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis to identify Stevens's remains. Also, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
Stevens’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neupré, Belgium, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Stevens will be buried on March 8, 2024, in Bushnell, Florida. His profile can viewed here.
