More than 80 years after he went missing in Romania, an American WWII airman has been honored

By Ashley R. Williams, CNN

(CNN) — A World War II airman who died in 1943 after his aircraft went down over Romania was recently honored at an American cemetery abroad, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

United States Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Stanley J. Samoski, who went unaccounted for until February 2024, was recognized with a bronze rosette placed next to his name on the Wall of the Missing at the North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, the commission said in a news release Thursday.

US Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia, Joey R. Hood, placed the rosette on the wall where 3,724 names are engraved to signify Samoski is now among the soldiers who have been recovered and identified.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced last month Samoski was accounted for, according to a news release from the agency.

Samoski, who was from New Hampshire, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery at a yet-to-be-announced date, the American Battle Monuments Commission said.

On August 1, 1943, the airman was serving with 334th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group in the ninth Air Force when the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which he was a bombardier crashed, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Enemy anti-aircraft fire brought the plane down during a large bombing mission called Operation Tidal Wave near Bucharest, Romania. Samoski’s remains were not identified during World War II and were among those buried as unknowns in the hero section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiești, Prahova, Romania, the agency said.

American Graves Registration Command, which tracked down fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the cemetery after the war, according to the agency.

The remains of more than 80 unknowns who could not be identified were recovered and interred at two cemeteries in Belgium.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began exhuming the remains of those who were believed to be Operation Tidal Wave-related unknown personnel in 2017. Those remains were then sent from Belgium to an agency laboratory to be examined and identified, the agency said.

“To identify Samoski’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence,” the agency said in the release. “Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.”

Samoski’s rosette marked the 21st to be placed on Tunisia’s Wall of the Missing at North Africa American Cemetery, the commission said.

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