The remains of one of the Tuskegee Airmen — an all-black World War II US fighter squadron that became and remains a powerful national symbol for civil rights — have been identified for the first time, the Pentagon says.

Key points: Lawrence Dickson's plane crashed on the Italy-Austria border during a recon mission in 1944

Lawrence Dickson's plane crashed on the Italy-Austria border during a recon mission in 1944 An American team discovered the wreckage in 2012, and excavated the site 5 years later

An American team discovered the wreckage in 2012, and excavated the site 5 years later Captain Dickson's remains were identified through DNA samples provided by his daughter

The Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency said the remains of Captain Lawrence Dickson were identified after being found near where his aircraft crashed in Austria in December 1944.

He is the first of 27 Tuskegee Airmen who are listed as missing in action to be found.

The 24-year-old captain in the 100th Fighter Squadron took off in his P-51 Mustang fighter plane from a base in Italy to conduct an aerial reconnaissance mission on December 23, 1944.

During the return the Mustang's engine failed and the plane was seen crashing along the Italy-Austria border, the Pentagon said.

Searches for the crash site were unsuccessful, and in 1949, the US military declared his remains non-recoverable.

In 2012, an American recovery team found the crash site in Austria after receiving information from an Austrian researcher.

The team found wreckage matching Mr Dickson's type of fighter.

Excavations conducted over four weeks in the summer of 2017 by the University of New Orleans and Austria's University of Innsbruck resulted in the recovery of human remains.

Comfort and closure for Mr Dickson's daughter

The skeletal remains were later identified as Captain Dickson's through DNA samples provided by his daughter, Marla Andrews of New Jersey, and another relative.

"I was spaced out," Ms Andrews said as she recalled her feelings last year when the Pentagon told her progress had been made in her father's MIA case.

Last summer, the Pentagon gave Ms Andrews and her relatives an official confirmation.

Mr Dickson was a 24-year-old captain in the 100th Fighter Squadron when his P-51 fighter went down. ( Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency via AP )

"A lot of things have to come together for something like this to work," Ms Andrews said.

Ms Andrews was 2 years old when her mother received notification that her husband was missing in action.

She was born in a hospital in Harlem, where Phyllis and Lawrence Dickson were living when he enlisted in the Army.

A South Carolina native who loved music and played the electric guitar, Lawrence Dickson was sent to Tuskegee, Alabama, for training in a newly formed African-American air squadron.

The storied Tuskegee Airmen would shatter aviation and racial barriers during World War II.

Qualifying as a pilot, Captain Dickson flew with the 332nd Fighter Group's 100th Fighter Squadron, known as the "Red Tails" for the colour of their aircrafts' tails.

Sixty-six Tuskegee Airmen died in combat, with 27 of those listed as MIA when the war ended.

Among the items recovered from the crash scene was part of a harmonica Captain Dickson carried with him during flights.

"Little things like that have been quite comforting," Ms Andrews said.

Phyllis Dickson died last December at 96 in Nevada, her daughter said.

Captain Dickson will be buried in March with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

AP/ABC