Robert H. Cameron – Second Lieutenant, United States Army Air Forces

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Robert H. Cameron

Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Service # 0-833022
41st Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group
Entered the Service from: Indiana
Died: 10 December 1944
Missing in Action or Buried at Sea
Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Manila, Philippines

NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense
No. 527-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jun 08, 2006 Media Contact: (703)697-5131 Public/Industry(703)428-0711

Missing WWII Servicemen are Identified

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel (DPMO) announced today that three servicemen missing in action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

The three are Second Lieutenant Robert H. Cameron of Elkhart, Indiana; Corporal George E. Cunningham of Rich Hill, New York, all U.S. Army Air Forces; and Captain Vladimir M. Sasko, Chicago, U.S. Army Medical Corps.  Cameron will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., on Friday.  Sasko was buried in December in Chicago, and final arrangements for Cunningham have yet to be confirmed.

On December 10, 1944, a C-47 crewed by Cameron and Cunningham took off from Dobudura, New Guinea, on a cargo flight to Hollandia with three passengers aboard, including Sasko.  Forty minutes into the flight the crew radioed a request for weather information.  Another pilot in the area replied that the weather was bad, saying he was headed out to sea to avoid it.  After that, there was no further contact with the Cameron crew.  Search teams in the area from the Royal Australian Air Force were unsuccessful in finding the crash site.

In 1979 and 1980, search and recovery teams from the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) found the site and recovered remains subsequently identified by CILHI scientists as those of Second lieutenant Stanley D. Campbell of Pioche, Nevada, and Corporal Carl A. Drain, hometown unknown.

In October and November 2004 a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC)  CILHI’s successor organization  excavated the site in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, where they recovered human remains and personal effects of the remaining airmen.

JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialists used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify the remains.  Laboratory analysis of dental remains also confirmed their identification.

The Defense Department has identified the remains of an Army Air Force pilot from Elkhart who disappeared 62 years ago during a cargo flight over New Guinea.

Second Lieutenant Robert H. Cameron of Elkhart, Indiana, was to be buried Friday at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that Cameron was among three World War II servicemen who had been identified and were being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

On December 10, 1944, Cameron was part of the crew of a C-47 that took off from Dobudura, New Guinea, on a cargo flight, the Pentagon said in a statement. Forty minutes into the flight the crew radioed a request for weather information and was never heard from again.

Army search and recovery teams found the crash site in 1979 and subsequently recovered the remains of two men aboard the flight.

The remains of three others including Cameron were recovered in late 2004 from an excavated site in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Army specialists used DNA analysis and dental records to confirm the identities, the Pentagon said.

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