The Long Road Home: Shining the light, focusing attention

I first saw it several years ago. We were already well into the project of trying to bring home our eight Kassel Mission MIA soldiers and get them identified when it happened. From out of nowhere, I saw myself standing at graveside during a burial service for one of these men. Until that moment, the thought that we might be successful (the government was looking to identify tens of thousands of remains), and that I might attend the funeral had never occurred to me. Then it wouldn’t let go.

I had first begun by contacting the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) by email, then by phone, following lengthy conversations with a dedicated researcher, learning the ropes, jumping through hoops. KMHS had become the liaison between the MIA families and the DPAA. Acting on their behalf, we would bring them to the point where positive action had been accomplished and things were in motion. From then on, communication would be direct between the two parties, with no need of a middleman. I sometimes lost heart, then would be contacted by a helper asking for an update.

Once, a movie—“Last Full Measure”—relit the fire under me. Never did I imagine it would actually occur, and that I would be there, much less at the venerated Arlington National Cemetery. A dual burial? Way beyond the scope of my imagination. Yet here we stood on Tuesday last, October 31, 2023—on a sunny, crisp fall day. While the rest of the country celebrated with jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treaters, here we celebrated in a much different way. We honored the return of remains of 2Lt. Porter M. Pile and T/Sgt. James M. Triplett, who had served together on the crew piloted by MIA Robert Hansen. We celebrated their return to their families and to be laid to rest and consecrated in their own true final resting places, even while we grieved once again their tragic loss in an alien land far from home.

CRASH SITE

I had been to the Hansen crash site twice—first, during a 2006 guided tour sponsored by the Kassel Mission Historical Society. The second trip was with German KMHS researcher and military archaeologist, the late Eb Haelbig, of nearby Eisenach, to plan a 2019 75 th anniversary tour for KMHS members. I will never forget tramping that ground. We even discovered a piece of Plexiglas! Through Eb’s work, KMHS had convinced the Army that the site was full of artifacts and possibly human remains from the low level explosion from that B-24. After Eb showed them the “hot spot,” the DPAA conducted a full archaeological dig during the Summers of 2015 and 2016.

FINDING THE FAMILIES

The remains recovered at that time were sent back to the DPAA lab in Omaha for DNA testing, along with the remains of others who died in that crash. (There were five, including Lt. Pile, Sgt. Triplett and Lt. Robert Hansen, the pilot.) Now they needed family DNA to see if the remains were a match. As the former president of KMHS, I had met and communicated with various family members of the fallen from that crew over the years. We had received a wonderful diary written by Lt. John C. Woodley, bombardier of the Hansen Crew, which he had written in prison camp afterwards. (That diary affords a

real look into the lives of these men back then and is available at www.kasselmission.org .) After the dig, the DPAA asked us at KMHS to seek out family members of the Hansen Five. We already were in touch with the Triplett family and had luck finding the Pile family as well and sent what we had. Sometime later, DPAA let us know they had what they needed. From then on out, contact would be between the families and the DPAA.

CULMINATION

Imagine our joy to see the DPAA announcements of the first and then the second positive match for two of our eight MIAs! Then to learn the two families had determined independently for burial at Arlington, and finally for them to agree that the two should be buried side-by-side in a single ceremony! So on Tuesday, when two shiny black hearses pulled up in front of the quaint chapel on the base by the museum, I suddenly became quite moved. Realizing that those caskets contained those dear men’s DNA still brought them nearer to me than ever before. Those fragments were now correctly identified and combined with other, larger pieces gathered back in 1946, and were marked “Unknown,” then mistakenly divided and sent to three different countries where the US maintains national cemeteries. For this effort to end in such closure entailed retrieving all fragments and putting each through DNA testing.

CLOSURE

I can only imagine the closure this ceremony brought to the family members who attended the funeral. Both families told me stories afterward of their mothers and fathers never having closure, and what they would have given for this, today. My companion said later that, when you make up your bucket list, you don’t think of attending a funeral at Arlington Cemetery, but wow! What an impressive day it was. The 700th Squadron honored them by flying over the cemetery as the cortege advanced to the area where the airmen would be buried, while the Army band led the way. The sun shone for us, unlike that fateful Wednesday in 1944 when clouds covered the target.

FINALE

Through tears and smiles, we had the honor of witnessing these men finally being laid to rest next to one another, fitting, since they fought together, flew together, and died together. At the end of the ceremony, three of us whose fathers flew in the Kassel Mission presented plane fragments from the Hansen crash site, retrieved, identified and polished by Eb Haelbig years ago, a fitting remembrance. These are the words I spoke as the ladies each handed the resin-encased treasures to the families. On behalf of the Kassel Mission Historical Society and on behalf of 2 nd Lt. Porter M. Pile, Navigator, and Tech Sgt. James M. Triplett, Radio Operator on the crew piloted by Lt. Robert Hansen, we present you and your families with two fragments recovered by Kassel Mission Historical Society researcher from Germany Eberhard Haelbig from the crash site of B-24 #42-95078, which carried these brave men into Germany on 27 September 1944. May we always revere and remember their bravery and dedication.