South Carolina airman who served in WWII accounted for decades later
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) recently announced that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Ralph E. Richardson, Jr., of Columbia has been accounted for after he was killed during World War II.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)— The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) recently announced that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Ralph E. Richardson, Jr., of Columbia has been accounted for after he was killed during World War II.
Authorities say the 21 year-old radio operator was serving during Operation TIDAL WAVE in the summer of 1943 when the B-24 Liberator bomber he was on was hit by enemy aircraft and crashed.
Richardson had been assigned to the 329th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force at the time of the incident.
Decades following his death, Richardson was accounted for on September 14, 2022 after DPAA exhumed unidentified remains believed to be those of unaccounted-for airmen who worked on Operation TIDAL WAVE.
The remains were sent to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, where scientists at DPAA Laboratory used anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA analysis to identify Richardson’s remains, say officials.
Richardson’s name is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy, with other service members still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to designate he has been accounted for.
Richardson will be buried in Columbia on an undetermined date.
Visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil for information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country.
