Remains Of Fallen WWII Sergeant Come Home To IE After 80 Years

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA ? The remains of a U.S. Army Air Corps sergeant killed during a bomb run over Germany in World War II was returning home Thursday, and a nonprofit organization asked Inland Empire residents to consider paying tribute to the serviceman when his casket is borne to a Riverside mortuary.

"We reach out to the community ... to ask for your support lining the route with flags to honor this hero as he is returned home to receive the honors he deserves," said Laura Herzog, founder of Garden Grove-based Honoring Our Fallen.

Tech Sgt. Donald V. Banta of Los Angeles was killed in action over Gotha, Germany, on Feb. 24, 1944.

The 21-year-old flight engineer was aboard a B-24J Liberator that was shot down amid heavy anti-aircraft fire. Two of his fellow crew members escaped before the four-engine bomber went into a steep dive and hit the ground, exploding on impact. Banta and the other men with him perished, according to details provided by the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group, at the time.

Herzog said German forces recovered remains found in the wreckage and buried them in a local cemetery.

Anthropologists from the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recovered the remains and conducted mitochondrial DNA testing, which, last September, confirmed the remains belonged to Banta, she said.

Military officials arranged for the remnants' return, which are expected to arrive at Ontario International Airport early Thursday afternoon. The estimated time of departure from the aerodrome to Arlington Mortuary is 3:30 p.m.

According to Herzog, the route to the mortuary will begin at Moore Way, turning east onto Airport Drive, then southbound on Haven Avenue, where the hearse will proceed for several miles until reaching Mission Boulevard, where it will head east again, ending at Hayes and Taft streets, in the mortuary parking lot.

Details on his burial services were not disclosed.

The return of Banta to U.S. soil is the second repatriation of a fallen World War II servicemember in recent weeks.

A soldier from Riverside who died after the Japanese invaded the Philippines in World War II was formally laid to rest earlier this month in his hometown ? 82 years to the day of his death.

U.S. Army Air Corps Pvt. Charles R. Powers was 18 when he died in July 1942 on the island of Luzon.
His remains were repatriated July 16, when they arrived at Ontario International Airport.

He was interred at Riverside National Cemetery July 18.

Powers was attached to the 28th Material Squadron, 20th Air Base Group at Nichols Field south of Manila when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on Dec. 7, 1941, followed immediately by a series of air assaults that largely decimated U.S. defense assets in the Philippines and led to the naval and ground invasion of the U.S.-held archipelago.

While what was left of American Army and Navy air forces retreated to the Dutch East Indies and Australia, ground personnel were left to try to fend off the Japanese invaders, culminating in the surrender of the Bataan peninsula in April 1942 and Corregidor weeks later.

Powers was among the tens of thousands of U.S. personnel subjected to the infamous "Bataan Death March" into captivity. At Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp, he was imprisoned and among over 2,500 men who died there. Camp records show he passed on July 18, 1942, and thereafter buried in a local cemetery.

"Although interred as an 'Unknown' ... Powers' grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission, along with others still missing from WW II," Honoring Our Fallen said.

His identity was ultimately confirmed, leading to arrangements for the repatriation of his remains.

More information is available at https://honoringourfallen.org/.

?City News Service contributed to this report.