:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/FOI2VKQMU5A5DGVKGUSRYPAZTE.jpg "POW/MIA Agency identifies Detroit-area airman killed in WWII 4")
ECORSE, Mich. (AP) — Authorities have identified the remains of a Detroit-area man who died when his aircraft was shot down in Romania during World War II, the Defense Department said Wednesday.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Peter Timpo of Ecorse was serving as bombardier on a B-24 Liberator. The crew’s mission was to hit oil fields and refineries near Bucharest in summer 1943 as part of Operation Tidal Wave.
Timpo’s remains were identified last July through mitochondrial DNA analysis and other steps, but his family only recently received a full briefing, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, the 24-year-old’s remains were buried at a cemetery in Romania and eventually moved to a U.S. cemetery in Belgium. In 2017, the government began exhuming unidentified remains of airmen killed during Operation Tidal Wave.
Timpo will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
