Pilot Returning to His Home After 83 Years to Be Buried in Maryland

The remains of First Lieutenant Walter Bateman, a U.S. Army Air Forces officer who died during World War II, were brought to Maryland 83 years later. Bateman's body was received with a ceremony at Baltimore‑Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport on Friday.

He had gone on duty at age 22.

Born in Maryland, Bateman joined a bombing mission targeting enemy airfields in Foggia, Italy, on 16 August 1943. When the B‑24D Liberator bomber he piloted was shot down, he was 22 years old. All 10 crew members aboard the aircraft lost their lives.

His remains were identified this year.

Bateman's remains were identified in 2026 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a U.S. Department of Defense agency. After studies using modern forensic techniques, the identity of the pilot who had gone missing 83 years earlier was confirmed.

The aircraft and crew were not found.

Bateman's aircraft and its 10‑person crew remained out of reach for years after the war. In 1945, remnants belonging to several unidentified U.S. soldiers were discovered in Italy, but at the time the technology to identify them was unavailable. The remains were later interred at the U.S. military cemetery in Naples as unknown soldiers.

2022'de Yeniden İnceleme Başladı

ABD Savunma Bakanlığı ve American Battle Monuments Commission, Haziran 2022'de kimliği belirlenemeyen kalıntıları mezardan çıkararak DPAA laboratuvarına gönderdi. Uzmanlar burada modern adli tekniklerden yararlanarak inceleme yaptı ve Bateman'ın kimliğini belirledi.

6 September will be defended.

Walter Bateman's funeral will be held on September 6 at the Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Joppa, Maryland, where the 83‑year wait for the soldier who vanished at the start of World War II will finally end.