Remains Of WWII Pilot From Michigan Killed In 1943 Finally Buried

MICHIGAN — The remains of a World War II pilot from Lansing who died in 1943 have been laid to rest next to his parents.

U.S. Army Air Force First Lt. Robert Parker’s remains were buried Monday at Deepdale Memorial Cemetery, with many of his nieces and nephews and their children and grandchildren in attendance.

“So many people are here. Unfortunately, not his folks. I would have loved it if they had been here because they were heartbroken,” Jane Moore, a niece of Parker’s, told The Detroit News.

In Nov. 1943, Parker was piloting a P-40N Warhawk fighter on a patrol mission with seven other planes in New Guinea when when enemy aircraft surrounded them. After shooting down one enemy aircraft, Parker collided with another, the impact shearing a wing off of each, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

His aircraft crashed, and it was reported that he did not bail out. After an aerial search of the area found nothing, Parker was declared missing in action. In Nov. 1944, the War Department issued a presumptive finding of death.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service, the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, conducted exhaustive searches of battle areas and crash sites in northeastern New Guinea, concluding their search in April 1948. Investigators could not find any evidence of Parker or his aircraft. He was declared non-recoverable Sept. 14, 1949.

In 2010, a team of third-party investigators visited an aircraft crash site in Morobe Province where they found a portion of a P-40N tail assembly and part of a possible tail number, both of which matched Parker’s aircraft.

In Sept. 2018, DPAA investigators visited Warom village in the Markham district. Residents said the alleged aircraft wreckage was within half a day’s walk from the village. The team also observed several pieces of P-40 wreckage in the village. An attempt was made to reach the wreckage site, but inclement weather, hazardous terrain, and time constraints prevented the team from reaching the site. They did, however, observe a propeller blade and landing strut located “downstream” from the reported site, and a local guide was able to get pictures of additional wreckage.

In May 2019, DPAA investigators returned to Warom after receiving information that residents had possible human remains reportedly recovered from the crash site. After extensive negotiations, local officials turned over the possible remains and a piece of the P-40 aircraft to the team, who then took them to DPAA’s laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.

To identify Parker’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

Parker’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.