The remains of a Michigan airman killed in World War II have been identified 79 years later

Pentagon agencies responsible for identifying and repatriating America’s war dead have long been criticized by distraught families.

The problem of bringing America’s war dead home

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A Michigan airman who was killed in 1943 during World War II has been held responsible by the U.S. government, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced in a news release Wednesday.

Lieutenant Peter A. Tiempo was 24 when he was assigned to the 343rd Bombardment Squadron in the summer of 1943. On August 1, Bombardier was flying a B-24 Liberator that was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire during “Operation Tidal Wave,” a large-scale Allied mission to target oil refineries. He was killed and his remains have not been identified.

According to Timpo’s personnel profile, there were five other soldiers who were involved in the accident. Two of them have been identified and three have not been identified. The crew was aboard a plane called the “Four Eyes” when it crashed – one of 51 planes that failed to return from a fleet of 177 planes.

Tiempo and members of his squadron are unidentified in a rare photo.

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Remains that could not be identified were buried as “unknown” in the Hero section of Romania’s Civil and Military Cemetery, the agency said. After the war, the American Graves Registration Command, an organization that located and recovered United States personnel, removed the remains, but more than 80 bodies were never identified. Those remains were reburied in two cemeteries in Belgium.

In 2017, the DPAA began exhuming unidentified remains believed to be linked to “Operation Tidal Wave”. Those bodies were sent to the agency’s laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Peter Tiempo and an unidentified woman.

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

There, scientists used anthropometric analysis and mitochondrial, chromosomal, and autosomal DNA analysis. Tiempo was officially calculated on July 20, 2022.

Tiempo’s name was inscribed on the missing tablet at the Florence American Cemetery, a monument in Italy. The agency said a rosette will be placed next to his name to show that he has been accounted for. His remains will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

The agency works to identify unknown remains from wars in which the United States was involved More than 81,500 Americans are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Gulf Wars, the agency said on its website, with more than half believed to be lost at sea.

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Kerry Breen

Kerry Breen is a news editor and reporter for CBS News. His reporting focuses on current events, breaking news and substance use.

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