Pilot ID'd in WWII Corsair wreck

[decaro]

From today's Connecticut Post:

"In 1944, the huge Japanese base at Rabaul in Papua, New Guinea, was under heavy bombardment during World War II by Allied forces in an operation known as Operation Cartwheel.

One of the U.S. Marine Corsair pilots who was lost over Rabaul in that operation, Maj. Marion R. McCown Jr., will finally be buried Jan. 18, with full military honors in Charleston, S.C.

According to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, McCown's aircraft -- the vaunted Chance-Vought F4U Corsair -- was declared lost Jan. 20, 1944, after it failed to return from a combat mission.

Earlier this year, a JPAC team confirmed through dental records and circumstantial evidence that a WWII Corsair wreck that had been known about since 1991 is McCown's aircraft. The announcement was made by JPAC last Friday.

According to U.S. military officials, about 2,200 U.S. servicemen are believed to be missing in action in New Guinea ..."

Op Cartwheel, the encirclement of Rabaul, is in the later UV scenarios. I recall that the original plan called for the actual invasion of Rabaul, but instead SOPAC wisely decided to surround and isolate it.

See full stroy at: http://www.connpost.com/ci_11309115