Memorials

 The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)  announced today that Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. John F. McTigue, 22, of  Astoria, New York, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept.  In  the summer of 1944, McTigue was a member of the 407th Bombardment  Squadron (Heavy,) 92d Bombardment Group (Heavy,) 40th Combat Bombardment  Wing, 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force. On Aug. 24, 1944, McTigue  co-piloted a B-17G Flying Fortress aircraft, carrying nine crewmembers,  which was struck by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed during a  bombing raid over Merseburg, Germany. Four crewmembers survived and were  captured by German forces, while five, including McTigue, were killed.  His remains were reported to have been buried in the Leipzig-Lindenthal  Cemetery.

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command  (AGRC) recovered three sets of remains from the Lindenthal Cemetery.  One set was identified, but the other two could not be, and were  subsequently designated Unknown X-1047 and X-183. In 1947, it was  determined that X-1047 contained the remains of two separate  individuals. They were segregated and redesignated as X-1047A and  X-1047B. The three sets were then declared unidentifiable and buried as  unknown American service members in American Battle Monuments Commission  (ABMC) cemeteries in Europe.

In 2017, while studying American  losses and unidentified remains recovered from outside Leipzig, Germany,  a DPAA historian determined that X-1047A, X-1047B and X-183 could  likely be associated with crewmembers from McTigue’s B-17G Flying  Fortress.

In April 2019, the Department of Defense and ABMC  disinterred X-1047A, X-1047B and X-183 and accessioned the remains to  the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify McTigue’s  remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis.   Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System  used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

DPAA is grateful to the  American Battle Monuments Commission and to the U.S. Army Regional  Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

Of  the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000  died during the war.  Currently there are 72,650 service members still  unaccounted for from World War II with approximately 30,000 assessed as  possibly recoverable. McTigue’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the  Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an ABMC site in  Hombourg, Belgium, along with the others missing from WWII. Although  interred as an Unknown, McTigue’s grave was meticulously cared for by  ABMC for 70 years.  A rosette will be placed next to his name to  indicate he has been accounted for.

McTigue was buried Nov. 18, 2019 in Woodside, New York.