Pfc. Mervyn E. Sims, an airman missing in action since World War II, was buried with full military honors last week in his hometown of Petaluma, Calif. His burial came after the Defense Department returned his remains to his family following DOD forensic scientists identifying them last November. Sims, 23, was part of a five-member crew of a C-87 Liberator Express that departed from Yangkai, China, on April 24, 1943, on a mission over the Himalayas to Chabua, India. The aircraft never arrived and a search effort found no evidence of the aircraft. In 2003, an American citizen in Burma reported to US defense officials that he had found aircraft wreckage in the mountains 112 miles east of Chabua. Human remains and artifacts that he recovered from the site led to Sims’ identification. (Includes DOD release) (See also Sims entry on DOD’s list of recently accounted for personnel)
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
