BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP-MODIFIED) — U.S. military officials say the remains of western New York airman killed in a plane crash in the Pacific during World War II have been identified.
The Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has announced on its website that the remains of Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Vincent J. Rogers Jr. were accounted for on March 21. He was from Snyder, outside Buffalo.
He was a 21-year-old radio operator for the 38th Bombardment Squadron, aboard a B-24 bomber that crashed shortly after taking off from an airfield on the Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands on Jan. 21, 1944.
Seven of the 10-member crew were killed, including Staff Sgt. Jack Busch, of Kenmore, near Buffalo.
The remains of Rogers and three other crew members were buried on Tarawa. Their remains were discovered in recent years by Florida-based History Flight.
