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)