World War II Airman Identified

Defense Department forensic scientists identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Samuel E. Lunday of Marianna, Fla., an airman lost in action during World War II, announced the Pentagon. They returned his remains to his family for burial with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, according to the DOD’s Sept. 28 release. Lunday disappeared with four other crewmen flying in a C-87 Liberator Express cargo aircraft from Yangkai, China, to their base at Chabua, India, on April 24, 1943, states the release. Rescuers were unable to locate the crash site due to heavy snow in the Himalayan Mountains and dense jungle canopy along the crew’s assumed flight route. In 2003, an American hiker stumbled upon the mountainous crash site, roughly 100 miles short of the base at Chabua, near the Indian border with Burma. The hiker recovered the aircraft’s identification placard and human remains that led to Lunday’s identification.