Credit: DPAA
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) recently announced that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Fred L. Brewer Jr., 23, of Charlotte, North Carolina, killed during World War II, was accounted for Aug. 10, 2023.
In late 1944, Brewer was a pilot with the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, in the European Theater. On Oct. 19, Brewer departed Ramitelli Air Base, Italy, as one of 57 fighters assigned to escort bombers to their targets in Regensburg, Germany. While enroute to their targets, the bomber group encountered heavy cloud cover over the Udine area of Italy, which forced several escort fighters to return early. According to another pilot witness, Brewer had attempted a steep climb to get above the cloud cover, which caused the engine of his P-51C Mustang, Traveling Light, to stall. It was reported Brewer’s aircraft had rolled over with the canopy jettisoned, but he was not observed ejecting from the plane. Brewer’s remains were not recovered, and he was subsequently declared missing in action.
In 2011, researchers discovered that an Italian resident of Moggio Udinese, Italy, used airplane wreckage found at a nearby crash site to create a memorial to fallen Americans who died during World War II. Around the same time, researchers analyzed the file for Unknown Remains X-125 Mirandola (X-125), which had been recovered but not identified from the Moggio Udinese civilian cemetery by American forces in 1946. These remains, unable to be identified at the time, were then interred at the Florence American Cemetery, Italy.
In 2022, DPAA and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) exhumed Unknown Remains X-125 for forensic analysis. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory for examination and identification.
To identify Brewer’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.
Brewer’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an ABMC 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.
Brewer’s personnel profile can be viewed at here.
Republished courtesy of DPAA