Gunner missing from World War II buried at Arlington Published April 13, 2005 WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office officials announced April 12 that the remains of an Army Air Forces crewman have been identified and were buried with military honors April 12.Staff Sgt. Robert McKee, of Garvey, Calif., was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.On Dec. 17, 1944, Sergeant McKee was an aerial gunner on an 11-person crew of a B-24L Liberator that took off from Pantanella, Italy, on a mission to bomb enemy targets near Blechhammer, Germany. The aircraft crashed in Hungary, near the small towns of Böhönye and Felsosegesd, with the loss of two crewmen, including Sergeant McKee. The other nine crewmen were able to safely parachute from the aircraft. After the war, the remains of the other unaccounted-for crewman were found in a cemetery in Felsosegesd.After the war, remains from an American aircraft crash near Vienna, Austria, were found buried with Sergeant McKee’s military identification tag. But they were identified as those of another flier. Further analysis revealed that Sergeant McKee had flown on the same plane and had lost his identification tag, most likely on that aircraft.In 1992, an undertaker recovered remains believed to be those of an American in the Böhönye, Hungary, cemetery, but they could not be associated with a specific incident. U.S. analysts obtained information from a Hungarian researcher which indicated that the remains might be associated with Sergeant McKee. Aerial gunner’s wings were found in the grave, as well as other items worn by U.S. bomber crews in 1944.Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used a number of forensic tools, including mitochondrial DNA, to confirm Sergeant McKee’s identity, matching his DNA with two known maternal relatives.Of the 88,000 Americans missing from all conflicts, 78,000 are from World War II.