Remains of Pittsburgh man killed while serving in World War II recovered

PITTSBURGH — After 80 years, a Pittsburgh man killed while serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II is accounted for.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), 2nd Lt. Gilbert H. Myers, 27 was declared missing in action in 1943 after the B-25 he was co-piloting was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Sicily, and his remains weren’t found.

In 1944, researchers learned a body had been found at the crash site, and in 1947 search and recovery operations were conducted. Neither led to the discovery of anything linking back to Myers.

Then, in 2021 and 2022, DPAA and partners returned to the area, finding plane wreckage and human remains. Those remains were sent for examination, and through anthropological analysis were eventually identified as Myers’.

Myers’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, an ABMC site in Nettuno, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

He will be buried on Nov 10, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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