Eighty years later, the remains of a 19-year-old Pennsylvania man killed in World War II have been identified.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Stephen J. Fatur of Slickville, Westmoreland County, has been accounted for, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on Tuesday.
Fatur was assigned to 429th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force, serving as the tailgunner on a B-17G “Flying Fortress” bomber.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Stephen J. Fatur of Slickville, Westmoreland County, has been accounted for, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced.
(Photo: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
On March 22, 1945, during a mission near the village of Glinica, Poland, Fatur’s aircraft crashed, killing seven of the ten crewmembers. But his remains were never accounted for.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command searched for the remains of U.S. servicemen in Europe in an effort to give them honored burials, but the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said the Soviet occupation in countries like Poland “severely limited” investigations.
From 2019 to 2024, the agency said it partnered with archaeologists to conduct excavations at the site where Fatur’s aircraft crashed. Human remains were found, which were sent to a laboratory for analysis.
The DPAA said anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence and DNA evidence allowed scientists to identify Fatur last July. The news was just announced because his family received their full briefing.
A rosette will be placed by his name at the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu. He’ll be buried in Delmont on a date yet to be announced.
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