(KMZA)--U.S. Senator Jerry Moran will be the featured speaker at a Memorial Day service honoring a missing World War II airman from Centralia.
The service will take place beginning at 2:00 Monday afternoon at the Nemaha County Veterans Memorial located at the junction of U.S. 36 and K-63 Highways at Seneca.
22-year-old Sergeant Carol Eugene Domer volunteered to man the tail gun on a B-24 for a night bombing run on January 1, 1943 targeting a Japanese airfield on the island of New Britain. On the return trip, engine failures forced the pilots to ditch the aircraft near Kawa Island in the Solomon Sea off the coast of New Guinea.
Ten occupants escaped the sinking bomber, but Domer was trapped in the tail section. His body was never recovered.
In 2002, the wreckage was discovered in 90 feet of water. Members of Domer's family contacted Moran who worked to arrange for the U.S government to have divers search the site.
Divers conducted that search in 2016, recovering only the sole of a shoe, the clip of a fountain pen and a gold ring. None of those items could initially be connected to Domer. However, three years later a family photo taken in 1942 was discovered that showed Domer wearing the ring. On the basis of the photo, the U.S. Army determined the ring definitely belonged to Domer.
Moran will return the ring to the family at the Memorial Day service. He will also present the family with the U.S. flag that was flown over the Capitol in Washington D.C on February 28 of last year to honor the 100th anniversary of Domer's birth.
© Many Signals Communications
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