EKB News

KENTUCKY....
A simple white headstone in an historic cemetery in southern New Jersey reads "Unknown U.S. Soldier." Michael Stowe and Ted Darcy, military veterans who research soldiers missing in action, say they've compiled enough historical evidence to believe the remains are those of 2nd Lt. William R. "Billy" Gardner, of Bowling Green, known to his family as "Uncle Billy." Gardner, a 24 year old pilot in the Army Air Corps, vanished over Delaware Bay while training in a single-seat P-47 Thunderbolt on February 24, 1944 after taking off from the military post at Dover, Delaware. A military crash report says Gardner was flying between 8,000 and 10,000 feet when he rolled the plane to avoid another aircraft, causing the plane to fall into Delaware Bay. About two weeks later, the military declared Gardner dead after neither he nor his plane could be found. About 10 months later, an oyster dredger snagged part of a plane and remains dressed in an Army Air Corps uniform. A DNA sample from a relative has been forwarded to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Stowe and Darcy are hoping to remove Gardner's name from the roughly 78,000 World War II soldiers still listed as Missing in Action and put a name on the headstone.