David J. NELSON
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NUMBER OF SERVICE | O-552168 | ||||||
AGE | 23 yo | ||||||
DATE OF BIRTH | 16 July 1921 | ||||||
ETAT | ILLINOIS | ||||||
FAMILY | |||||||
RANK | 2nd Lieutenant | ||||||
FONCTION | Co Pilot | ||||||
JOB BEFORE ENLISTEMENT | |||||||
DATE of ENLISTEMENT | |||||||
SQUADRON | 322nd Bomber Squadron | ||||||
GROUP | 91st Bomber Group, Heavy | ||||||
ARMY | 8th US Air Force | ||||||
DATE OF DEATH | 8 August 1944 |
Brittany American Cemetery - Wall of Missing(Rosette) Arlington National Cemetery | |||||
STATUS | KIA | ||||||
PLACE OF DEATH | Lonlay-L'Abbaye | ||||||
DATA PLAN | B-17 Fortress - type G-15-BO - s/n 42-31367 LG*R
"Chow Hound"
Remains discovered in 2002 by the ANSA 39/45 Plane cut in half - the part before exploding in flight | ||||||
CEMETERY | BRITTANY AMERICAN CEMETERY of St James | ||||||
GRAVE |
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DECORATION |
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STORY | |||||||
2nd Lt. David J. Nelson, Chicago, Ill. On August 8, 1944, Nelson, Kortebein and Treece departed an allied air base in England in their B-17G Flying Fortress with six other crewmen aboard.Their mission was to bomb enemy targets near Caen, France. The aircraft was seen to explode and crash after being struck by enemy flak near the village of Lonlay l'Abbaye, south of Caen. German forces and French villagers living near the crash site recovered some of the remains of the crew and buried them nearby. Advancing U.S. forces found additional remains.Six of the nine crewmen ultimately were identified, but Nelson, Kortebein and Treece remained unaccounted for. In August 2002, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) operating in Luxembourg was informed that a local French aircraft wreckage hunting group (Association Normande du Souvenir Aerien 39/45) had located a crash site near Lonlay l'Abbaye.The JPAC team surveyed the site, excavated it in July 2004 and recovered human remains, personal effects and crew-related materials from amid the wreckage. Also found were six unexploded 250-pound bombs. Later that year, a French explosive ordnance disposal team turned over a bone fragment to the U. S. Defense Attache in Paris. It was found by French technicians working to secure the site where the bombs had been found. Among other forensic identification tools, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains of the three, matching DNA sequences from maternal relatives.
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SOURCE INFORMATION & PHOTO | Findagrave.com - Findagrave.com - Abmc.gov - Francecrashes39-45.net - Carl Di MARIA |
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PROGRAMMER | Clive, Frédéric & Renaud |