WWII pilot, whose remains were identified 78 years after his death, to be buried at Gap

In May 1944, U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Carl D. Nesbitt was assigned to the 569th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group. The Lima, Ohio, resident flew 19 missions in his first month serving over seas during World War II.

Nesbitt was the pilot of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during a huge bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany, on May 29, 1944. Enemy fighters attacked the bomber’s formation about 28 miles northeast Leipzig, and his plane was shot down.

"(Lt. Nesbitt) was shot down by three waves of German fighter planes," The Lima News reported in October 19, 1945.

Before it crashed, six of the 10 member crew were able to escape the plane near Horst. But the rest, including Nesbitt, were killed. Their bodies were believed to have been buried in a local cemetery, according to officials.

"He was awarded the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters, and a Purple Heart," The Lima News reported.

Nesbitt was 23 years old.

But after 78 years, Nesbitt's remains were identified, and he will be laid to rest at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery on May 15.

Officials found the remains of one of the crew members buried in a cemetery in Horst in September 1946. However, the American Graves Registration Command was not allowed to investigated the site further because of worsening diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, that controlled this part of Germany at the time.

Nesbitt was declared non-recoverable April 21, 1953.

But in July 2012, investigators recovered evidence of a B-17 at Nesbitt's crash site. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency excavated the site and in August 2019, recovered possible remains that were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.

Nesbitt was accounted for in Sept. 9, 2022, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence and DNA analysis.

"(Nesbitt's) name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site, in Hombourg, Belgium, along with others still missing from World War II," officials said in a release Wednesday. "A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for."

Attempts to reach out to Nesbitt's family for this story were not returned as of Friday afternoon.

Nesbitt is the second solder to be identified by the the DPAA Laboratory and laid to rest at Ft. Indiantown Gap Cemetery in the past several months.

In August 2022, Pfc. Donald Born's remains were laid to rest in the cemetery after 72 years and four burial sites. Dozens came to the service to honor the former Korean War soldier's service and sacrifice.

"It could happen, you could get that closure," Amber Hogan, whose grandmother was Born's half sister, told the Lebanon Daily News in August 2022. "We never thought we would get that closure, and here we are some 70-some years later finally getting that."

Born's body was exhumed in March of 2019 as part of the DOD's Korean War Disinterment Project.

Pfc Born's service: 'To have them come home': Remains of Korean War soldier finally put to rest at the Gap

Pfc Donald Born: 'Final piece of the puzzle': Soldier identified 72 years after his death in the Korean War

Since the U.S. Department of Defense officials revived their recovery efforts in the 1970s, the remains of nearly 1,000 Americans killed in World War II have been identified and returned to their families. Officials say that number is in addition to the roughly 280,000 U.S. soldiers whose remains were identified in a mass effort immediately after the war.

Graveside services for Nesbitt will be performed by Neill Funeral Home, in Camp Hill, preceding the interment. Nesbitt will be interred at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery on May 15.

To learn more about the DOD's efforts to identify Americans who went missing, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: World War II pilot's remains to be buried at Indiantown Gap