WWII airman missing for decades will be buried with full honors

A missing World War II airman from San Francisco whose remains were found more than a decade ago will finally be laid to rest Thursday.

Army Air Force Sgt. Charles A. Gardner’s remains will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory identified Gardner after matching his DNA to that of his niece and nephew, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Gardner went missing April 10, 1944, when he and 11 other B-24D Liberator crew members took off from New Guinea for a planned attack on an anti-aircraft site at Hansa Bay. On their way to the site, Gardner and his crew were shot down over Madang Province.

Four crew members who were able to parachute from the aircraft died in captivity.

The Army Graves Registration Service was only able to recover three of the missing airmen’s remains after the war. But in 2001, a U.S.-led team discovered wreckage of a B-24D that had the tail number of Gardner’s aircraft.

The team found human remains as well as non-biological evidence that led to their conclusions.

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