The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces solider killed in World War II will be buried Aug. 6 at at Highland Cemetery in Williamsport, in Warren County, Indiana, north of Terre Haute
Tech. Sgt. Lawrence E. Reitz was a native of Hoopeston, Illinois. A radio operator, he was assigned to 343d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force, according to an Army news release.
He was serving aboard a B-24 Liberator on Aug. 1, 1943, when it crashed after being hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
Reitz was 22 years old. His remains could not be identified after the war. Remains that could not be identified were buried as unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti Prahova, Romania.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command, tasked with recovering fallen personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification.
More than 80 unknowns could not be identified and were interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for Soldiers from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses, sending the remains to the laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.
Reitz was accounted for by the by the agency on May 5 of this year. His remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as DNA analysis.
His name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Maus Funeral Home, Attica, Indiana, will perform graveside services preceding the interment Aug. 6.
For more on the mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call 703- 699-1420, ext. 1169.
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