Soldiers' remains to be returned

Soldiers' remains to be returned

JAKARTA (JP): Remains of eight World War II U.S. soldiers
found in Irian Jaya will be returned to their families following
a ceremony scheduled for Jan. 22.

Trikora military commander Maj. Gen. Sembiring is to
officially give the remains to commander of the U.S. 13th Air
Force, Maj. Gen. Waskow, in the ceremony in Jayapura.

According to the U.S. embassy here, the remains were
identified by a team of 10 specialists from the U.S. Army Central
Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. They arrived on Jan. 9 to
recover the remains following reports of a plane wreckage on a
mountain slope. The wreckage was sited by a helicopter pilot
working for mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia.

The team identified the wreckage as a US B-25 plane which went
missing in World War II after it left Merauke en route to Biak on
Sept. 8, 1945, carrying eight Americans. (anr)