Staff Sergeant Felix Shostak of Oxnard, shot down during the Second World War, finally identified
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OXNARD, Calif. – U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Felix J. Shostak is finally returning home after his B-24H 'Liberator' was struck by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid near Boussicourt, France in August of 1944.
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On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that Staff Sergeant Shostak was accounted for on Sep. 19, 2023, and his remains will be buried in accordance with the wishes of his remaining family in his hometown of Proctor, Vermont in June of this year.
Staff Sergeant Shostak was assigned to the 860th Bombardment Squadron, 493 Bombardment Group in the European Theater of Operation in August of 1944 shared the Department of Defense.
On Aug. 18, 1944, Staff Sergeant Shostak's B-24H Liberator was struck by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid of a German-occupied position near Boussicourt, France, southeast of Amiens explained the Department of Defense.
One airman parachuted from the doomed aircraft and survived while eight other crew members of the Liberator, including Staff Sergeant Shostak, were onboard when the aircraft crashed approximately two kilometers west of Boussicourt detailed the Department of Defense.
German records indicate that the remains of several individuals were recovered and buried stated the Department of Defense.
In 1945, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps, was tasked with recovery efforts of American service members in the European Theater and six sets of remains were disinterred from the village cemetery at Pierrpont-sur-Avre, France explained the Department of Defense.
At the time, the American Graves Registration Command was unable to identify Staff Sergeant Shostak and another crew member's remains, but in 2018, DPAA investigators excavated a site near Boussicourt believed to correlate with the crash site of Staff Sergeant Shostak's B-24H shared the Department of Defense.
Staff Sergeant Shostak's remains and other materials from the aircraft, including a 1938 Proctor High School class ring and a dog tag, were sent to the DPAA laboratory for further analysis and identification added the Department of Defense.
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According to the Department of Defense, scientists with DPAA used anthropological analysis and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis to successfully identify Staff Sergeant Shostak and his remaining family members received a full briefing on their findings.
Staff Sergeant Shostak's name is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Ardennes American Cemetery in Nuepré, Belgium and a rosette will be placed to his name to indicate that he has now been accounted for explained the Department of Defense.
For more information about Staff Sergeant Shostak's funeral, contact the Army Casualty Office at 800-892-2490.