NORWALK, Conn. — Remains of a World War II tail gunner missing for 64 years have been identified as Martin Troy, whose B-24H Liberator bomber was shot down by a German Messerschmitt on June 30, 1944.
The bomber crashed in a swampy area in Hungary.
The 32-year-old Troy, a staff sergeant from Norwalk, was the only member of the 10-person crew not accounted for. He was the tail gunner on the B-24 named “Miss Fortune,” which was shot down as it returned to Italy after a mission in Germany.
Troy’s body was found near Nemesvita, Hungary, beside Lake Balaton, during an August 2007 excavation by the U.S. military’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command teams.
DNA tests were performed on Troy’s sister, 90-year-old Julia Caravutto, and her son, William Wilcox.
Troy will be buried Nov. 20 with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.
“It’s very good; we’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Troy’s nephew, Benjamin Sugden of Stratford, Conn. “It’s really a relief.”
Troy and his wife, Grace, who died in 1964, did not have any children. Troy was one of five children in his family.
“There are families that have been waiting decades, especially those like this case that have been waiting from World War II, and this brings an overwhelming sense of closure,” said Capt. Mary Olsen, a public affairs officer for the Pentagon’s POW/MIA offices in Arlington, Va.
Olsen said nearly 100 such identifications occur each year.
“Many families were just sent telegrams saying ‘your family member is missing in action,’ ” she said, “but now we can give them that closure.”
