BROOKLYN, Miss. (WHLT) – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on Wednesday, December 7 that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Theodore F. Scarborough, 21, of Brooklyn, Mississippi, was accounted for on September 7, 2022.
Officials said Scarborough was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment (Heavy), 9th Air Force.
On August 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Scarborough was the bombardier was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war.
The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from the cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.
To identify Scarborough’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Scarborough’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the North African American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Tunis, Tunisia, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Scarborough will be buried in Brooklyn, Mississippi, on April 21, 2023.