Memorial

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S/Sgt Edgar L. Mills attended college and was a salesman before he volunteered for the Army of the United States at Camp Blanding, Florida on 16 February 1943.

The airplane was shot down by enemy aircraft and exploded in midair.

Six crew members survived and were taken prisoner; five men were killed.

According to surviving crew members, S/Sgt Mills was wounded and did not have the time to bail out.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. In 1946, AGRC investigators searched the area of the crash site, and they discovered two sets of remains however, none were associated with Mills. He was declared non-recoverable on 26 July 26 1951.

In 2012, three German witnesses led what is now known as DPAA to an aircraft crash site near Kimratshofen, Germany, which resulted in subsequent investigation and recovery efforts in 2013, with a 2018 recovery mission finding possible human remains and material evidence.

In 2019, a DPAA partner team from the University of New Orleans continued work at the Kimratshofen site, recovering additional material, which was also transferred to the DPAA laboratory in Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

To identify Mills’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), analysis.

His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Epinal American Cemetery. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

S/Sgt Mills was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 4 May 2023.