EXETER, Calif. (KFSN) — A Tulare County family will finally be able to lay their loved one to rest more than 80 years after he died in World War II.
US Army Air Force Sgt. Adolph Aguirre of Exeter was 21 years old in the summer of 1943, serving as an assistant radio operator in a B-24.
On the morning of August 16, Aguirre’s bomber was shot down over Italy in enemy territory.
After years with no news of survival, the Department of Defense declared Aguirre dead and non-recoverable in 1950.
But 70 years later, Defense Department researchers began examining five sets of remains recovered from a town not far from where the B-24 went down.
On May 29 this year, family members were notified that Sgt. Aguirre had officially been identified.
He will be buried in his hometown of Exeter on Friday, September 18.
Listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern.
