Thursday, 4:30 PM
Two Mass. servicemen among 9 identified in World War II plane crash
By Globe staff
Two Massachusetts servicemen have been identified among the remains of nine US servicemen found at a site in Germany where an American plane crashed during World War II, military officials announced today.
The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office identified the servicemen as: First Lieutenant David P. McMurray, of Melrose, Mass.; First Lieutenant Raymond Pascual, of Houston; Second Lieutenant Millard C. Wells Jr., of Paris, Ky.; Technical Sergeant Leonard J. Ray, of Upper Falls, Md.; Technical Sergeant Hyman L. Stiglitz, of Boston; Staff Sergeant Robert L. Cotey, of Vergennes, Vt.; Staff Sergeant Francis E. Larrivee, of Laconia, N.H.; Staff Sergeant Robert J. Flood, of Neelyton, Pa.; and Staff Sergeant Walter O. Schlosser, of Lake City, Mich.; all were in the US Army Air Forces.
According to a press release today, the men were aboard a B-24J Liberator that departed North Pickenham, England, on July 7, 1944, on a mission to bomb a German aircraft factory near Bernburg, Germany. The plane was last seen by US aircrew members in that vicinity. Officials said the captured records revealed that it had crashed near Westeregeln, about 20 miles northwest of the target in what later became the Soviet sector of a postwar divided Germany.
In 2001, the release stated, a group of German citizens interested in recovering wartime relics and remains learned of a potential crash site south of Westeregeln. Later that year and in 2002, the group found the site and uncovered human remains from what appeared to be two burial locations. The remains and other personal effects, including identification tags, were turned over to US officials.
In 2003, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team combed the crash site and recovered additional remains along with identification tags and nonbiological evidence.
