Buzz
Thousands of military personnel are still unaccounted for. Every conflict, whether historical or ongoing, continues to increase the number of names on this grim roster. World War II and the Vietnam War saw many pilots disappear under mysterious circumstances.
These were the days of intense aerial combat and high-risk covert operations. The figures are alarming, but the real weight of MIAs is most deeply understood through the emotional toll on their families, communities, and those who worked tirelessly to locate them.
10. Recovery of William Shank
Lieutenant William W. Shank’s fellow pilots last saw him when his P-38 Lightning pulled out of a dive. After that, no one knew his whereabouts as they were engaged in an intense aerial dogfight.
While battling over Germany during World War II, Allied bombers en route to Bremen encountered up to 50 German aircraft. Years later, the US military launched an effort to locate their missing personnel in Germany. Among them was 24-year-old Lieutenant William Shank.
The coordinates of his last known position, a witness, and German military records provided promising leads, but none led to a breakthrough. Decades later, the Americans joined forces with a German researcher who uncovered additional witnesses who had seen Shank’s final moments.
The Virginia-born pilot had crashed in the northern part of the country on a farm. Excavations soon unearthed pieces of his plane and human remains. A DNA test in 2018 confirmed that the remains were indeed Shank’s.
9. The Pacific Pilot
In 2018, the US military conducted a search in the Pacific Ocean for missing-in-action personnel. Off the coast of Ngerekebesang Island in the Republic of Palau, they found a pilot's remains still trapped inside his World War II aircraft, which had been shot down nearly 74 years earlier.
At the time, the identity of the US airman couldn’t be confirmed, but a massive recovery operation was launched to bring the wreckage to the surface. Years of sand and marine growth had buried the plane, and it took two months of round-the-clock work to clear it.
The operation was coordinated from a ship that was anchored above the submerged plane. Divers filled large buckets with sediment, which could take up to six hours to collect. A crane then lifted the buckets onto the ship, where archaeologists carefully examined the sand for any artifacts.
In addition to military personnel, civilians also contributed to the recovery efforts. The next phase of the operation will focus on identifying the Pacific pilot and locating his next of kin.
8. Italian Dogfight Casualty
Both World Wars were marked by intense aerial battles, or dogfights, between opposing aircraft. These deadly confrontations claimed numerous lives, and in 2014, the remains of one such pilot were discovered in a cornfield.
During World War II, Italy fought against the Allied forces, and on March 11, 1944, Lieutenant Guerrino Bortolani engaged in a skirmish with US pilots. A witness observed his plane crash in the northern Italian countryside.
Exactly 70 years later, the witness guided investigators to the crash site, which had since become farmland. Buried 4 meters (13 feet) deep, they uncovered a Macchi C.205 Veltro, widely regarded as one of the finest Italian fighter planes of World War II.
The excavation uncovered engine components, wheels, fuselage, and other equipment. The most remarkable find was the pilot’s body, still seated in the cockpit. Lieutenant Bortolani, aged 27, was one of three Italians and three Germans who lost their lives during a bombing raid by the Allies. As of now, only one more Italian pilot remains unaccounted for.
7. The Bauder Family
In 1966, Lieutenant Commander James Bauder took off from the USS Coral Sea near North Vietnam. His squadron embarked on a bombing mission, but two planes never returned. Bauder, at 35 years old, was among them. None of the fellow pilots saw him crash, and there was no distress signal or wreckage. The father of three had disappeared without a trace.
His parents and wife had passed away before his remains were finally located in 2017. When Bauder went missing, his daughter, Jane, was only four years old. When she received the long-awaited news, she was 55, and her father's remains had been found in the form of a femur. The bone was discovered in the same area where he had last been seen.
Before the leg bone was found, there had been numerous moments of false hope as the navy kept Jane updated on any potential discoveries of her father's remains. But this time, DNA testing confirmed that it was indeed Bauder. Eager to share the good news, Jane called her aunt, who had contributed the genetic sample years earlier.
Unfortunately, like much of Bauder’s family, his younger sister would never learn of his discovery. She had passed away just days before Jane received the long-awaited news about her father.
6. Australian in a French Field
During World War II, Sergeant William Smith served in a Royal Australian Air Force squadron based in Redhill. In May 1942, the Australian pilot took to the skies in his Spitfire to escort RAF bombers over to France.
The official account stated that the 24-year-old pilot encountered an enemy aircraft and was shot down over the Channel near Dover. When no wreckage was found, it was assumed that the plane had sunk into the sea.
In 2011, historian Andy Saunders was far from the location where Smith was believed to have disappeared. While searching a French field for another World War II Spitfire, he unexpectedly stumbled upon a crash site and identified the type of plane. However, once a body emerged from the wreckage, Saunders realized it wasn’t the aircraft he had been searching for. (The pilot of the other Spitfire had parachuted to safety.)
Identification through dog tags confirmed that the remains were indeed Sergeant William Smith’s. The crash site was a complete surprise, given that Smith had disappeared nearly halfway across the Channel. His location was almost 64 kilometers (40 miles) off course. In 2012, Smith was laid to rest with full military honors in France, at a ceremony attended by his 84-year-old brother, Bert.
5. The Untouched Kittyhawk
While exploring Egypt's Western Desert for an oil company, Jakub Perka made a surprising discovery. In the middle of the barren landscape, he found a perfectly preserved World War II fighter plane.
The aircraft was a single-seater Kittyhawk P-40 from the Royal Air Force. Sadly, the pilot was not as well-preserved—he was missing. The scant evidence left behind told the story of his tragic fate.
The pilot is believed to have been Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping, a British airman who survived the crash and used the wreckage and his parachute to make a makeshift shelter. The external batteries and radio suggested he had attempted to repair them and reestablish contact, but ultimately failed. With no remains or uniform found, it’s assumed that Copping made a desperate and fatal choice—to leave the shelter and walk into the desert.
In 1942, the 24-year-old Copping had been assigned to fly a Kittyhawk to a nearby airbase for repairs. The plane had been experiencing issues before the flight, including problems with the front landing gear and flak damage to the fuselage. He never made it, and the plane found in 2012 bore the same mechanical troubles.
4. Dad Returned To Daughter He Never Really Knew
Over 70 years ago, Lieutenant Robert Mains cradled his newborn daughter. Just hours later, he was deployed and would never see her again. While on a bombing mission over Germany, Mains was shot down. Tragically, this occurred just weeks before World War II ended in 1945.
In 2017, the Pentagon contacted Barbara O’Brien, Mains’ daughter, to inform her that her father had been found. Human bones discovered in a field in Germany were sent to the division that handles MIA cases. DNA testing later confirmed the remains belonged to Barbara’s father.
Lieutenant Robert Mains' remains were returned and flown to Long Island, where he was met at MacArthur Airport with full military honors. In an emotional ceremony attended by his daughter, now in her seventies, and her husband, a Vietnam veteran, Mains was laid to rest at the Calverton National Cemetery with full military honors.
3. The Danbury MIAs
Decades ago, three boys grew up in Danbury, Nebraska. The families of Daniel Thomas, Larry Knight, and Donovan Walters were close, with the boys attending the same grade school. Daniel's mother and Larry's father were cousins. Remarkably, all three became fighter pilots and tragically went missing during the Vietnam War.
As Danbury was a small town, the loss had a profound impact on the community. Donovan Walters' remains were found in 1988, 16 years after his disappearance, and were returned home for burial.
Daniel Thomas, aged 24, went missing in 1971 while flying a covert mission over Laos. His final radio transmission mentioned poor visibility due to bad weather, followed by a ground report indicating what sounded like a plane crash. All efforts to locate the wreckage were unsuccessful.
The first real lead came in 2014 when a Vietnamese citizen showed investigators a photo of dog tags. The tags belonged to Major Donald Carr, who had been flying with Thomas that day. This led to the discovery of the crash site in Vietnam, much further from Laos than expected. The few remains of Thomas, his teeth, were returned to Danbury and buried in 2017.
Larry Knight remains unaccounted for.
2. Pilot Discovered by Grandson
In 1945, the US Army Air Corps was focused on driving the Nazis out of Italy. Lieutenant Loren Hintz was one of the pilots involved in the April 21 mission that helped liberate Bagnarola. However, when the battle ended, Hintz was missing. Unknown to many, a 12-year-old Italian boy had witnessed his P-47 aircraft crash.
Hintz left behind a nine-month-old daughter who grew up and had a son named Hans Wronka. Moved by his family’s memories of the missing grandfather, Hans embarked on a quest to uncover his grandfather’s fate. He connected with veterans online, delved into historical records, and made trips to Italy in search of answers.
During his second trip to Italy, something incredible occurred. In 2016, Hans met the 12-year-old witness, who was now an elderly man, and guided Hans directly to the crash site of the P-47 that had gone down over 70 years ago.
An excavation team joined the effort, and after digging 5 meters (16 ft) into the earth, they first unearthed metal fragments. Then, the plane's machine guns, frame, and engine were recovered. Finally, as Hans looked on, dog tags were discovered next to human remains. The name inscribed on them was 'Lt. Loren Hintz.'
1. The First Tuskegee Airman
The pioneering African-American military pilots of World War II were the Tuskegee Airmen. They served with distinction despite enduring racial discrimination, including one particularly harsh rule—black pilots had to complete 70 missions before being eligible for recuperative leave, while their white counterparts only needed 50.
One of these Tuskegee Airmen was Captain Lawrence Dickson, 24. A decorated pilot with a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart, Dickson was married with children. On December 23, 1944, he set off for his 68th mission—just two flights short of qualifying for leave—when his P-51 aircraft vanished over Italy.
His family was notified of his disappearance, but there were no updates until a crash site was discovered in 2017. The site was located in Austria, near Hohenthurn, not far from Dickson’s last-known position. The debris found in the field resembled a P-51, and German records confirmed that a P-51 had crashed there on December 23, 1944.
The wreckage contained human remains. If forensic analysis confirms that the remains belong to Dickson, which seems very probable, he will become the first Tuskegee Airman MIA to be recovered. There are still 26 others who remain missing.
