Memorial

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S/Sgt Robert E. Howard graduated from Moravia High School and worked for the Climax Engineering Company in Clinton.

He enlisted at Camp Dodge, Herrold, Iowa on 9 March 1943.

Statement of Donald E. SHEPHERD, O-704507, 1st Lt., 450th Bomb Squadron:
"I was flying as co-pilot in the aircraft leading the flight. The lost aircraft was flying on our left wing. I first observed Lt. Dow's aircraft as we turned off the target, and his plane came directly under ours. The plane was in a steep dive, and smoke was coming from its tail. Later, I saw flames come out of the left side of the plane. At the same time, I saw one chute leave the aircraft and blossom out. Diving earthward, the plane made a shallow turn to the left and hit in the center of a small town. The aircraft exploded immediately upon hitting the ground."

The plane received a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire and crashed into a house at Muhlanger, 1 mile southeast of Wittenberg. In December 1948, the wreckage was located; however, no trace could be found of the remains of the deceased crew members. It is believed that their remains were totally destroyed by the ensuing fire since the plane and the house burned completely.

In 2007, a German aircraft researcher interviewed eyewitnesses, who reported seeing two deceased crew members buried near the crash site under an apple tree. He also reported the crew members as being exhumed in 1947 or 1948 by an Allied recovery team.

In June 2012, a German national informed the U.S. government that he found possible human remains in Muhlanger, which he believed to have been associated with an April 1945 B-26B crash, and turned them over to the local police. In July 2012, a Department of Defense (DoD) team began excavating the site, recovering human remains, personal effects, and aircraft wreckage. DoD also took custody of the remains that the local German national had previously recovered. The remains were of two crew members, S/Sgt Howard and S/Sgt David Kittredge.

To identify Howard’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools such as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and dental comparisons, which matched his records.

The individually identified remains of S/Sgt Howard were buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on 27 May 2015, together with the individually identified remains of Kittredge.