Airman Lost After ’41 Crash Is Laid to Rest

An Army airman who was missing for 58 years was buried Tuesday in his hometown of Haverhill, Mass., six years after the wreckage of his plane was found in the mountains of Panama.

Cpl. Paul R. Stubbs was 24 when he and his crew disappeared while on patrol over the Panama Canal in June 1941, a few months before the United States entered World War II.

Air and ground searches were conducted at the time, but no trace was found until 1999, when a hunter stumbled upon the wreckage.

Scientists spent the next six years comparing DNA from remains found at the crash site to a database of missing military personnel before positively identifying Stubbs and his two crew members, 2nd Lt. Augustus J. Allen of Myrtle Springs, Texas, and Staff Sgt. James D. Cartwright of Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Stubbs was buried in Hilldale Cemetery near his parents, after a graveside service attended by about 75 local veterans. Soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division of Fort Drum, N.Y., served as pallbearers.

Robert Adams, 87, a World War II Army veteran, did not know Stubbs but said he was pleased that Stubbs was finally able to come home.

“There’s an awful lot out there who they haven’t found and never will,” Adams said.

Stubbs had no surviving family members in the area. His cousin, Rita Winterhawk, 71, of Great Falls, Mont., attended the service, along with her son, Ernest Medow, and grandson, Ernest Medow II.

Three other cousins also attended.