Military identifies remains of WWII airman
John Szalay
By Scott Fontaine - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 13, 2011 16:38:02 EDT
The remains of an Army Air Forces officer missing since World War II are
being returned to his family, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
2nd Lt. Martin Murray will be buried with full military honors Saturday in
Marshfield, Mass.
He was one of 12 crew members who took off New Guinea on Oct. 27, 1943, in
a B-24 Liberator as part of an attack mission on the Japanese redoubt at
Rabaul, New Britain. The aircrew on Murray’s bomber radioed to say poor
weather conditions would force them to land at a friendly airstrip. They
didn’t say where, and multiple search missions in the following week did
not locate the Liberator.
In August 2003, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command received a
tip about a possible crash site from a Papua New Guinean citizen, who also
turned over an identification card of one of the crew members. A team
excavated the site in 2007 and discovered identification tags and human
remains. DNA evidence and dental records helped identify Murray.