(This story has been updated to add new information.)
A Southbridge World War II airman, missing for 79 years after his plane crashed in Austria, will finally return home now that his remains have been identified.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense, made the announcement Friday morning in a news release.
Sgt. Edward Stanley Kovaleski, who before leaving for the war had been the owner of Eddie’s Market on Woodstock Road, was an engineer and ball turret gunner on board a B-24J Liberator that crashed near Hüttenberg, Austria, on April 26, 1945, just about two weeks before the end of the war in Europe. Kovaleski, 25, was assigned to the 760th Bombardment Squadron, 460th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force. The plane was en route to a bombing mission when it malfunctioned and crashed.
Eight crewmembers successfully evacuated, but Kovaleski was not accounted for, and since no one had witnessed any deployed parachute, it was believed that he had gone down with the plane when it crashed, according to the agency. His remains were not recovered, and he was declared missing in action.
A year after his disappearance, the Worcester Daily Telegram printed an obituary for Kovaleski after the U.S. War Department sent a letter to his wife, Althea (Hasty), confirming his disappearance. The article said a first anniversary Mass would be held at St. Hedwig’s Church.
Kovaleski joined the Army Air Forces in November 1942 and had been in service for six months when his disappearance was announced in April 1945. He was a member of the 15th Air Force and was on his 18th mission when the aircraft, named Seldom Available, malfunctioned and crashed.
The obituary listed his surviving relatives, in addition to his wife, as his father, Frank; four brothers, Anthony, John and Joseph of Southbridge, and Frank of Ware; and three sisters, Anna Bachand, of Hartford, Connecticut; Julia Zabinski, of Worcester and Josephine Karbowski, of Southbridge.
In 2017, researchers with the POW/MIA Accounting Agency investigated a suspected crash site in Austria following a lead from an independent researcher. The site was excavated between 2021 and 2022, and remains found there were sent to a laboratory for identification.
According to the announcement, the remains were identified using anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
The remains were confirmed as belonging to Kovaleski on June 4, and members of his family were later notified.
Kovaleski’s name is among those listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Firenze, Italy. The POW/MIA Accounting Agency said a rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, at a date to be determined.
With reporting from staff writer Kinga Borondy.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Remains of Southbridge, MA, serviceman lost in WWII are identified
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Publish date : 2024-12-06 05:40:00
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