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FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Henry L. Stevens, a Soldier killed during World War II, will be interred March 8 at Florida National Cemetery, Bushnell, Florida. Beyers Funeral Home & Crematory will perform Graveside services preceding the interment.
A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Stevens was a crewmember assigned to the 557th Bombardment Squadron, 387th Bombardment Group, Ninth U.S. Air Force, in the European Theater of Operations. He was serving aboard a B-26F “Marauder” aircraft, nicknamed Shirley D, Dec. 23, 1944, when it was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Bitburg, Germany, while returning from a bombing raid. Witnesses reported Shirley D took damage to the right engine, crashing near Winville, Belgium. Stevens was 23 years old.
By Dec. 26, 1944, the remains of every crewmember from Stevens’s aircraft had been recovered, identified and accounted for except for Stevens, and he was declared non-recoverable. Decades later in 2019, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency personnel recovered possible remains from the crash site sending them to a DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification.
Stevens was accounted for by the DPAA Sept. 15, 2023, after his remains were identified using anthropological, mitochondrial DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.
For additional information about Staff Sgt. Stevens, go to: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/3660329/airman-accounted-for-from-wwii-stevens-h/
Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490 and/or Beyers Funeral Home & Crematory, 352-793-4531.
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| Date Taken: | 03.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2024 10:00 |
| Story ID: | 465083 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Remains of World War II Soldier to be buried in Bushnell, Florida, by Fonda Bock, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
