Homecoming for WWII Airman’s Remains

The Air Force will escort the remains of Sgt. Robert Stinson, an airman whose B-24 Liberator bomber was shot down by Japanese fighters on Sept. 1, 1944 near the Western Pacific Island nation of Palau, to Ontario, Calif., on Oct. 28, for burial by his family, reported the Redlands Daily Facts Monday. A public service will be held for him on Oct. 29, followed by his burial in Riverside the next day. Stinson was 23 years old when he died. His remains lay, along with those of his comrades, for 60 years in the B-24’s underwater wreckage until divers with the BentProp Project located the bomber in 2004. He was identified via DNA analysis.