US Army Air Force Engineer. Sergeant Kenneth J. McKeeman, 23, of Brooklyn, New York, who was killed during World War II, was accounted for on September 18, 2023, and returned to Connecticut, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He is scheduled to be buried.
TSgt. McKeeman will be buried in Middletown on June 7, the agency said.
“In early 1944, McKeeman was assigned to the 724th Bomb Squadron, 451st Bomb Group, 15th Air Force, in the Mediterranean/European Theater,” the agency said in a statement. “On March 11, bombardier McKeeman, aboard the B-24D Liberator, was killed by heavy anti-aircraft fire over Toulon, France.''
McKeeman was a radio operator on a B-24 Liberator (serial number 41-2725) that took off from San Pancrazio Airfield, Italy, with 11 crew members on board for a bombing mission against the port of Toulon, France. .
“After the Liberator dropped its payload, it was hit by flak just behind the rear bomb bay. The other astronauts flying the mission said the aircraft lost control and split in two. “People reported seeing large flames coming out of the damaged Liberator's waist window before it shattered,” the agency said. “Two parts of the plane fell into the water. Witnesses reported not seeing a parachute before the crash and believed there were no survivors.”
In June 2019, McKeeman's alleged remains were exhumed from the Rhône American Cemetery and transported to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Scientists used anthropological analysis and mitochondrial DNA analysis by scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System to determine that the body was McKeeman, the statement said.
You can find TSgt. Click here for McKeeman's personal profile.
