5-20-16 VFW - MIA Updates (see below)

[Boats]

RE: friendsoffreedom@vfw.org

MIA Update(s):

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has announced the identification of remains of five American service members who had been missing in action since World War II. Being returned home for burial with full military honors are:

• Navy Chief Storekeeper Herbert J. Hoard, 36, and Seaman 2nd Class Dale F. Pearce, 21, had been missing since Dec. 7, 1941, when the battleship USS Oklahoma they were aboard suffered multiple torpedo hits and capsized as it was moored off Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Hoard will be buried May 21 in his hometown of DeSoto, Mo., and Pearce will be buried May 26 in his hometown of Dennis, Kan.

• Marine Pfc. Elmer L. Mathies Jr., 21, will be buried May 28 in his hometown of Hereford, Texas. Mathies died Nov. 20, 1943, while fighting the Japanese on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands. He was assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division.

• Army Capt. Elwood J. Euart, 38, of Pawtucket, R.I., died Oct. 26, 1942, trying to rescue some soldiers who were trapped in a transport ship that struck two mines as it was entering Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. He was assigned to the 103rd Field Artillery Battalion, 43rd Infantry Division. Burial details have yet to be announced.

• Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Donald L. Beals, 21, of Brookings, S.D., was a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot who died April 17, 1945, while on a combat mission near Dresden, Germany. He was assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. Burial details have yet to be announced.

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