An airman killed when he was shot down over Romania during World War II is returning to his home to Massachusetts nearly 80 years later.
The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Charles G. McMackin will arrive at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Friday night and a procession will bring them to city hall in his hometown of Revere, Mayor Brian Arrigo said.
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State and local police, city firefighters, elected officials and others are expected to pay their respects, and the public is also welcome to attend before the remains head to Brookline, another Boston suburb, according to the mayor.
The 26-year-old was the bombardier on a B-24 Liberator that participated in Operation Tidal Wave on Aug. 1, 1943.
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The bombing mission targeted oil fields and refineries in Romania considered crucial to the Nazi war effort.
McMackin’s plane crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire, and his remains were not identified following the war.
Fallen American soldiers that could not be identified were buried in a cemetery in Romania and later moved to one in Belgium.
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The remains were exhumed in 2017, and McMackin was eventually identified using dental and anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA analysis.
