Part of veteran's remains to be buried in W.Va.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Part of the remains of a World War II pilot shot down in the Pacific will be buried in the Friendly Cemetery in Tyler County, thanks in part to a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Frances Wright Weekley, a regent with the Ohio Valley chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, said some of the remains of Lt. Jack Arnett would be returned to the West Virginia cemetery.
Arnett was the pilot of a B-24 Liberator that took off from Wake Island off the coast of New Guinea on Sept. 1, 1944, on a bombing mission 750 miles away at Koror in the South Pacific.
Arnett's plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire and fell into the ocean, according to a U.S. Army Air Force mission report. He was 23.
Declared dead in 1946, it wasn't until 2005 that the pilot's remains were found by the Bent Prop Project, a group dedicated to finding American planes shot down in World War II.
The remains were identified by the Joint POW/MIA Account Command using the DNA of living relatives. Arnett's DNA was matched to his 92-year-old brother, Howard M. Arnett, who now lives in Florida.
"It's just a fascinating story," Weekley said. "I mean, what happened to his plane, all of the coordinated efforts, then finding him and his crew all these years later, and the DNA findings. It's just miraculous."
Arnett's remains were to be cremated and laid to rest on Dec. 12 in Florida in a service with military rites. Now, half of his remains will be returned to Friendly Cemetery and the other half will remain in Florida.
Both the cemetery and relatives in Florida will hold separate memorial services for Arnett.
"It was his mother's last wish to have her son brought back here to be buried," said Weekley, who helps keep track of local records in Friendly.
"She made her sons promise that if his body was ever found, to have him brought back here."
Arnett's father, Bernice Buell "B.B." Arnett, is buried at Friendly Cemetery. The remains of his mother, Verla "Dessie" Ash Arnett, who died in 1993, are in Florida.
Near his father's grave stands a small monument in memory of their son.
The marker, constructed in 1950, shows his parents' wish that their son be buried next to them, Weekley said.
Typically, it's the blood relative who makes that decision, said Greg Smith of Parkersburg. Smith is a retired Air Force colonel who worked at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii while he was assigned to the Joint Task Force Full Accounting. The lab identified U.S. soldiers killed in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Part of the remains of a World War II pilot shot down in the Pacific will be buried in the Friendly Cemetery in Tyler County, thanks in part to a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Frances Wright Weekley, a regent with the Ohio Valley chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, said some of the remains of Lt. Jack Arnett would be returned to the West Virginia cemetery.
Arnett was the pilot of a B-24 Liberator that took off from Wake Island off the coast of New Guinea on Sept. 1, 1944, on a bombing mission 750 miles away at Koror in the South Pacific.
Arnett's plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire and fell into the ocean, according to a U.S. Army Air Force mission report. He was 23.
Declared dead in 1946, it wasn't until 2005 that the pilot's remains were found by the Bent Prop Project, a group dedicated to finding American planes shot down in World War II.
The remains were identified by the Joint POW/MIA Account Command using the DNA of living relatives. Arnett's DNA was matched to his 92-year-old brother, Howard M. Arnett, who now lives in Florida.
"It's just a fascinating story," Weekley said. "I mean, what happened to his plane, all of the coordinated efforts, then finding him and his crew all these years later, and the DNA findings. It's just miraculous."
Arnett's remains were to be cremated and laid to rest on Dec. 12 in Florida in a service with military rites. Now, half of his remains will be returned to Friendly Cemetery and the other half will remain in Florida.
Both the cemetery and relatives in Florida will hold separate memorial services for Arnett.
"It was his mother's last wish to have her son brought back here to be buried," said Weekley, who helps keep track of local records in Friendly.
"She made her sons promise that if his body was ever found, to have him brought back here."
Arnett's father, Bernice Buell "B.B." Arnett, is buried at Friendly Cemetery. The remains of his mother, Verla "Dessie" Ash Arnett, who died in 1993, are in Florida.
Near his father's grave stands a small monument in memory of their son.
The marker, constructed in 1950, shows his parents' wish that their son be buried next to them, Weekley said.
Typically, it's the blood relative who makes that decision, said Greg Smith of Parkersburg. Smith is a retired Air Force colonel who worked at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii while he was assigned to the Joint Task Force Full Accounting. The lab identified U.S. soldiers killed in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The chain of remains is the spouse, parents and then immediate family, unless there is a will or other document stating where the soldier wanted to be buried, Smith said.
Weekley, along with VFWs and American Legions, were able to help in piecing together the young pilot's past and find blood relatives still living.
In addition to his brother, Arnett has a niece and cousin, both in Florida, and a cousin in Charleston.
His cousin, Carolyn Arnett Rocchio, who lives in South Florida, said she remembers Arnett as "very quiet" and "very academic."
Cousin Leon Ash, 84, who lives in Cross Lanes, said he doesn't know much about his cousin. Ash said he was just 19 or 20 when he was shot down.
At the time, he lived in Ben's Run near Saint Marys.
"I remember coming to visit," Ash said. "I remember my parents coming down to visit them in Charleston."
Arnett graduated in 1936 from Charleston High School. At the time, his parents lived in Charleston and his grandparents lived in Friendly, Weekley said.
Ash said he's happy his cousin's remains will be coming home to West Virginia.
"I think the Friendly Cemetery has a nice memorial there waiting for him," he said.
Rocchio said Arnett's remains are expected to be delivered in Orlando Dec. 8. The memorial service in Florida will include military rites and a flyover, she said.
Weekley could not say exactly when Arnett's remains would arrive in Friendly or when the memorial service would be held at the cemetery.
"We would like to have a nice memorial service in honor of his service, of course," she said. "We are a very patriotic community. We like to honor our soldiers and our veterans in every way that we can."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact writer Jessica M. Karmasek at jess...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4817.
