Florida pilot killed in WWII accounted for almost 80 years later

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Thursday that 2nd Lt. Alfred J. Hamwey, of Jacksonville was accounted for, after nearly 80 years.

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In January 1945, Hamwey was assigned to the 360th Service Group, Combat Replacement Training Center, Far East Air Force, and deployed in present-day Papua New Guinea.

As part of an attempt to neutralize the Japanese threat near Wewak, Territory of New Guinea, Hamwey’s unit attacked enemy defensive positions on nearby Cape Wom.

Hamwey was reported as missing in action on Jan. 20 1945, when friendly forces lost contact with the A-20G Havoc bomber he was piloting.

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After the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS), a military unit responsible for recovering missing American personnel in the Pacific Theater, conducted searches of battle areas and crash sites in New Guinea.

In June of 1949 a board of AGRS officials concluded they were unable to locate any remains of Hamwey and the other two crew members.

In the early 1980s, DPAA predecessors started researching and recovering service members from Papua New Guinea.

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In December 2011, an Australian Defence Force officer reported seeing an aircraft crash site in a swap.

A local guide from the nearby had discovered the site roughly six months prior and stated human remains had been seen in the crash.

Between July 2015 and May 2016, DPAA interviewed locals and collected crash materials, various life support items, and possible remains.

In late 2022, a DPAA underwater recovery team conducted operations at the site and recovered possible human remains, which were sent to the DPAA laboratory for further review.

Scientists used dental and anthropological analysis to identify Hamwey’s remains.

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He was marked accounted for on May 20, 2024, and his family was notified of his identification.

Hamwey will be buried on September 12, 2024, in Jacksonville, Florida.

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