After 81 years, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) says the remains of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Robert Aikman, of Forsyth, have been accounted for. Aikman, 40, was killed in World War II.
The federal agency is in charge of finding, recovering, and identifying the remains of U.S. Prisoners of War (POW) and military members considered Missing In Action (MIA).
Aikman was buried today in his southwest Missouri hometown.
In a news release, the agency says Aikman was assigned to Battery D, 1st Battalion, 59th Coastal Artillery Corps. He was held as a prisoner of war by the Empire of Japan in the Philippines from 1942 to 1944, when the Japanese military attempted to transport POWs to Japan aboard the transport ship Oryoku Maru.
Unaware the allied POWs were on board, a U.S. military plane attacked the Oryoku Maru, which eventually sank in Subic Bay.
The Japanese government reported that Aikman died on January 9, 1945, when U.S. forces sank the Enoura Maru.
To identify Aikman’s remains, scientists analyzed dental evidence, artifacts, nuclear and circumstantial evidence, as well as DNA.
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