BOSTON (AP) — The remains of a Massachusetts airman killed during World War II have been identified.
The Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Friday the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Joseph E. Finneran were accounted for Aug. 9. The 22-year-old from the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston was a bombardier assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group.
The agency says Finneran was aboard a bomber that was shot down Aug. 1, 1943 during a bombing mission against oil fields and refineries near Bucharest, Romania.
The unidentified remains of Americans killed during “Operation Tidal Wave” were buried in a Romanian cemetery, then disinterred after the war by U.S. teams.
The agency says anthropological and DNA analysis were used to identify Finneran’s remains.
Finneran will be buried Nov. 9 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
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