Remains of MIA Korean War pilot identified - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Remains of MIA Korean War pilot identified

OZARK, Ala. — More than a half century has passed since the late Charles Dees read a note that his 25-year old son, Air Force 1st Lt. Robert Franklin Dees, had gone missing in North Korea after a direct hit to his aircraft.

Robert Dees’ niece, Linda Dees, said Charles Dees waited adamantly in anticipation that the F-84E Thunderjet pilot had somehow survived the hit and would be coming back home.

At least part of the elder Dees’ prayers was answered: on Dec. 1, the Air Force Department of Mortuary Affairs notified Linda Dees that DNA collected from her late father matched that of Robert Dees’ dental records, therefore confirming the remains of her uncle had been found and would be returning to the U.S. for proper burial.

Robert Dees was a member of the 430th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 474th Fighter Bomber Group. A memorial ceremony with full military honors is set for later this month in Long Street Historic Cemetery.

Linda Dees said the news of her uncle’s discovery has been met with both wonderment and closure as she and her brother, Charles Jr., work with cousins Robert and Doug Dees to prepare for the memorial.

“It was something. I’m happy there is now closure about Uncle Robert, but yet it was very, very sad,” she said.

“It’s a bittersweet moment, because my father and the rest of our family wanted dearly for him to be found. But in the end, it is still a death, and that hurts.”

According to information the Air Force provided to Linda Dees, Robert Dees was delivering bombs while on a combat mission with three other F-84 Thunderjet pilots in Sinyang, North Korea, when his aircraft received a direct hit by anti-aircraft fire on Oct. 9, 1952.

Dees said the other pilots were able to radio in to the base and leave the area, but that Robert Dees was listed as Missing in Action. He was presumed dead Dec. 31, 1953.

From September 1954 to November 1954, the North Korean government repatriated remains of the U.S and allied soldiers during Operation Glory. Robert Dees’ remains were deemed unidentifiable and buried as “Unknown Remains” in 1956 in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

Dees said her father submitted DNA to the military in 1999 in hopes his brother could be found. Robert Dees’ body was exhumed in June.

On Dec. 21, the airman’s identifying evidence was presented to his family in Ozark. Dees said Robert Dees’ remains are expected to be shipped back home to Ozark on Jan. 21.

Dees said military officials would not release the exact cause of her uncle’s death, but that the discovery of a zipper to Robert Dees’ flight suit gave her confidence that he was not a prisoner of war.

“I doubt that he would have still worn his flight suit if he had been a prisoner. That gives me a good feeling,” she said.

Dees encouraged families who have loved ones identified as Missing in Action to not give up hope. “This is certainly a miracle, but it is evidence that miracles do happen,” she said.

“There’s really no way besides a miracle that I can describe this moment.”