Remains of 2 U.S. airmen retrieved from Chinese mountain

U.S. team reaches site of WWII crash

January 15, 1997

Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EST (1800 GMT)

XINGAN, China (CNN) -- The remains of two World War II U.S. airmen were in U.S. hands Wednesday, after Chinese officials guided a Defense Department team to the site of a bomber crash near the summit of a remote mountain in southern China.

In an informal ceremony, a senior Chinese military officer handed the remains and a box of personal effects over to U.S. military officer. A formal ceremony will be held Friday in Beijing.

"No matter where we must go or how much time it takes, America does not forget its warriors," said Alan Liotta, deputy director of the U.S. POW/MIA (Prisoner of War/Missing in Action) office.

The rusting debris and the remains of the crew had rested silently for 52 years near the summit of Mao'er Mountain, south China's tallest. Flying in darkness, the B-24 bomber slammed into the 6,000-foot (1,800-meter) mountain while returning from a raid against Japanese ships off Taiwan on August 31, 1944. It was only the plane's second mission against the Japanese.

Local farmers found the crash site last October while searching for wild herbs on the steep, slippery slopes of the mountain. Chinese officials in Xingan county said that 500 local residents have spent the last two months cutting a path to carry out the remains of the 10-member crew and the scattered debris.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin announced the discovery to U.S. President Bill Clinton last November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Manila. Jiang gave Clinton a videotape and photographs of the crash site.

In December, Chinese officials delivered two dog tags from the wreckage to Defense Secretary William Perry.

On Tuesday, Chinese officials guided a forensics team from the U.S. POW/MIA (Prisoner of War/Missing in Action) office, accompanied by a group of journalists, to the site in Guangxi province. Journalists and officials alike clung to ropes as they traversed wet rocks, slippery mud walls and narrow ledges to reach the site.

Reporter falls 200 feet down mountain

Stephanie Ho, a Voice of America reporter from Berkeley, California, was knocked unconscious when she slipped and fell nearly 200 feet (75 meters) down a nearly vertical rock face. One of the farmers who originally found the crash site carried Ho back to the ledge, and rescuers evacuated her from the mountain. She was listed in stable condition at a hospital in Guilin, 50 miles south of the site.

The United States aided China against Japan during World War II. During Wednesday's ceremony, Chinese officials expressed gratitude for the help.

"Fifty years ago these brave young men scattered their blood over this beautiful region," said Liang Ziwei, director of foreign affairs in Xingan.

U.S. officials were pleased with the joint effort to retrieve the remains.

"This demonstrates a spirit of cooperation and a longing for future peace and renewed relationships," U.S. Maj. Mark Keene said following the ceremony.

The remains of the crew will be flown to a government laboratory in Hawaii for identification. U.S. officials said they had notified the families of all 10 that the crash site had been found.

The youngest of the B-24's crew was 19, the oldest 27. One, Anthony DeLucia, died on his 24th birthday. His brother, Elmer DeLucia of Bradford, Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview that his family for years wondered if Anthony might have survived on an island.

When he heard the news of the crash discovery, DeLucia said he was "shaking like a leaf. I was overjoyed to know at least he was found and we knew what happened."

Beijing Bureau Chief Andrea Koppel and Reuters contributed to this report.

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