WWII remains ID’d as airman from Maine

Confirmation that human remains found near a crash site in New Guinea included those of a World War II airman from Maine who had been missing in action for more than 60 years has come as a mixed blessing to his family.

Remains were identified through dental records, DNA samples and circumstantial evidence as those of Staff Sgt. Glendon E. Harris of North Monmouth and three other members of the Army Air Force from New England.

Harris’ oldest brother, Emory Harris, died in December 2004, just nine months after donating a blood sample that allowed the DNA testing on Harris’ remains to go forward. Glendon Harris’ seven other brothers and sisters also have died.

Emory Harris’ daughter, Maxine Pray of Winthrop, said she felt “tremendous relief” that the remains were identified. “But I also feel bad for my father, who died waiting for the results,” she said.

A federal anthropologist identified the remains as those of Glendon Harris; Lt. Robert H. Miller of Providence, R.I.; 2nd Lt. Robert L. Hale of Newtownville, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Joseph A. Berube of Fall River, Mass., the Department of Defense said in a statement this week.

Miller, Hale and Berube were buried last month by their families. Some of Harris’ remains will be buried along with the other three crewmen at Arlington National Cemetery, Pray said, and there also will be a Maine burial service in the spring for Harris.

The four men were on a bombing mission on Oct. 24, 1943, when their B-25 bomber was shot down by Japanese fighter aircraft. There were no survivors.

Australian War Graves search teams recovered some of the crew’s remains from the crash site in the years immediately after the war. Those remains were buried as unknowns at a military cemetery in the Philippines.