On December 14, 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Second Lieutenant Lynn W. Hadfield, missing from World War II.



Second Lieutenant Hadfield joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Utah and was a member of the 642nd Bombardment Squadron, 409th Bombardment Group (Light). On March 21, 1945, he was the pilot of an A-26B Invader (serial number 43-22353) that took off from England carrying two other crew members on an interdiction mission against targets at Dulmen, Germany, in preparation for the Allied crossing of the Rhine River two days later. At some point during the mission, the bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. It crashed near Velen, Germany, and 2LT Hadfield and the other two crew members were killed in the incident. Immediate investigations failed to locate the aircraft or recover any remains. In 2016, a German researcher reported a crash site in a horse paddock in Hulsten-Reken, Germany. The German government and U.S. History Flight, Inc., working with DPAA, excavated the site and recovered human remains and artifacts correlating to 2LT Hadfield's Invader. Using advanced forensic technology, U.S. analysts identified 2LT Hadfield from the recovered remains.



Second Lieutenant Hadfield is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.



Army Air Forces Sgt. Vernon L. Hamilton, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Dec. 13, 2018. On March 21, 1945, Hamilton was a member of the 642nd Bombardment Squadron, 409th Bombardment Group, 9th Bombardment Division, 9th Air Force, aboard an A-26B, when the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and went missing during a combat mission from Couvron, France to Dülmen, Germany. Hamilton, his pilot, 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield, and the other crewman, Sgt. John Kalausich, had been participating in the interdiction campaign to obstruct German troop movements in preparation for the Allied crossing of the Rhine River on March 23, 1945.



Hamilton’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.