Remains of World War II Soldier, Tampa, Florida, native, to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery

Photo By Fonda Bock | The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Edgar L. Mills, killed during World War II, will be interred May 4, at Arlington National Cemetery. A native of Tampa, Florida, Mills was killed in action July 18, 1944, at age 25, after the B-17G bomber on which he was serving was shot down during a bombing raid on enemy aircraft and air defense installations around Memmingen, Germany.  

FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES

04.24.2023

Story by Fonda Bock 

U.S. Army Human Resources Command

The remains of a Soldier killed during World War II will be interred May 4, at Arlington National Cemetery. Graveside services for U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Edgar L. Mills will be performed by Everly-Wheatley Funerals and Cremation, Alexandria, Virginia, preceding the interment.

A native of Tampa, Florida, Mills was an armorer gunner assigned to the 816th Bomber Squadron (Heavy), 483rd Bomber Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force. He was killed in action July 18, 1944, at age 25, after the B-17G bomber on which he was serving was shot down during a bombing raid on enemy aircraft and air defense installations around Memmingen, Germany. Due to the damage to the aircraft, the pilot ordered the crew to bail out. Six of the airmen parachuted successfully while the other five crew members, including Mills, were believed to still be on board. The surviving crew witnessed the aircraft explode in an area south of Memmingen, Germany.

Mills body could not be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps, tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater, discovered two sets of remains after searching the area of the crash site, but neither could be associated with Mills. He was declared non-recoverable July 26, 1951.

After three German witnesses led investigators to an aircraft site near Kimratshofen, Germany, in 2013, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency restarted recovery efforts that eventually resulted in the finding of possible human remains and material evidence in 2018, which were transferred to the DPAA laboratory in Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, in 2019.

Mills was accounted for by the DPAA Feb. 13, 2023, after his remains were identified using dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Dinoze, France, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information about Staff Sgt. Mills, go to https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/3341566/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-mills-e/

To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call [phone]/1169.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact the Army Casualty Office at [phone] and/or Everly-Wheatley Funerals and Cremation, 703-998-9200.


-30-

• Date Taken: 04.24.2023
• Date Posted: 04.24.2023 11:08
• Story ID: 443222
• Location: FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US