
A 24-year-old , U. S. Army , captain killed during World War II did come back home to , Wichita.
On Tuesday, Lt.  , Herbert G. Tennyson, of , Wichita, was accounted for, the , Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency , said.
The business, also known as DPAA, works to identify and retrieve military support people who went missing during their services.
Tennyson was assigned to the , U. S. Army ‘s , Air Forces Bombardment Squadron, 90th , Bombardment Group, 5th , Air Force, a DPAA news release shows.
He was believed to have been killed on the day of , March 11, 1944.
That night, Tennyson was the captain about a B-24D Liberator name God Is Rush. The helicopter “departed Nadzab Strip# 1,  , Papua New Guinea, as part of a bombing goal against enemy positions at , Boram Airfield, and , Awar Point,  , Hansa Bay, located along the north coast of , New Guinea”, the DPAA said.
The airport may have been struck by anti-aircraft gunshots, which set off the munitions it was carrying. The plane was reportedly seen by other airmen bursting into flames before colliding with the liquid.
” Many plane circled the crash site in hopes of locating any conceivable victims, but none could be seen”, according to the launch.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service conducted searches of conflict areas and crash sites to restore missing , U. S.  , defense people. They ended their hunt in 1948. Two years later, in , March 1950, the AGRS said it was unable to get Tennyson and other staff members of the aircraft.
Years later, the home of another Heaven You Wait team member undertook a research that led to finding Tennyson’s keeps.
The shipwreck of the B-24 Liberator was found in , October 2017 , in , Hansa Bay. People skeletal remains, life support supplies, and id tags were recovered by divers.
These items were taken to a DPAA lab for analysis.
” To discover Tennyson’s remains, researchers from DPAA used dental and anthropological study, as well as materials and contextual evidence”, the DPAA said.
His label is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the , Manila American Cemetery , and Memorial, along with others also missing from WWII. A flower may be next to his name to reveal that he has been found.
” Tennyson may be buried in , Wichita, Kansas, on a time yet to be determined”, the DPAA said.
Some 215, 000 Kansans served in WWII, a tiny over 12 % of the country’s population at the time. About 5, 478 across many trees were killed in action, according to Eagle files.
___
© 2025 The Wichita Eagle
Distributed by , Tribune Content Agency, LLC