MIA Update - October 14, 2016

[boardman]

MIA Update: The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced the identification of remains of three Americans who had been missing in action since World War II. Returning home for burial with full military honors are:
-- Navy Seaman 2nd Class James N. Phipps, 24, of Rainier, Ore., will be buried Oct. 17 in Portland, Ore. On Dec. 7, 1941, Phipps was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which capsized after sustaining multiple torpedo hits as it was moored off Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack on the battleship resulted in 429 casualties. Read more at: http://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-R ... or-phipps/.
-- Pfc. James S. Smith, 19, will be buried Oct. 17 in his hometown of Liberty, Miss. In November 1943, Smith was assigned to Company C, 2nd Amphibious Tractor Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands. Approximately 1,000 Marines and sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, but the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Smith died sometime on the first day of battle, Nov. 20, 1943. Read more at: http://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-R ... ith-james/.
-- Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Donald L. Beals, 22, of Brookings, S.D., will be buried Oct. 17 in Arlington National Cemetery. On April 17, 1945, Beals was piloting a P-47D Thunderbolt on an armed reconnaissance mission when he was shot down by antiaircraft fire near Dresden, Germany. He was assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. Read more at: http://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-R ... for-beals/.