Assigned to 68BS, 44BG, 8AF USAAF. TDY to 9AF USAAF. 26 x combat missions. Failed to Return (FTR) Ploesti in B-24 42-40995 'Satans Hell Cats' 1-Aug-43; shot down by fighter, crashed 20 miles beyond target. Killed in Action (KIA) MACR 2416/3147



Awards: DFC, AM (2OLC), PH (OLC).



November 17th 2021

S/Sgt Charles McMackin

Airman Accounted For From World War II

WASHINGTON Nov 17, 2021

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that USAAF S/Sgt Charles G McMackin, 26, of Boston, killed during WWII, was accounted for Aug 17, 2020.

In the summer of 1943, McMackin was assigned to the 68th BS, 44th BG(H), 8th AF. On Aug 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator on which McMackin was bombardier crashed due to enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploesti, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploesti, Prahova, Romania.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.

In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska for examination and identification.

To identify McMackin’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

McMackin’s 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 WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.