Photos of the Week: WWII Pilot Home at Last

Eighty years after he was shot down during a battle in the Pacific during World War II, the remains of a U.S. Navy pilot are finally back home.

Navy Reserve Lieutenant Jay R. Manown Jr. was 26 years old when his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean in the fall of 1944 during a mission against Japanese forces. On Friday, the military flew his remains to Pittsburgh International Airport, where scores of family and veterans greeted his arrival with a planeside service before the casket was taken to his hometown of Kingwood, West Virginia.

PIT photographer Beth Hollerich captured images of the planeside service as a military honor guard unloaded his casket from the arriving Delta flight. Family and veterans’ groups watched nearby.

Manown was accounted for in May after DNA testing revealed the identity of his recovered remains.

Manown was an aviator assigned to Navy Torpedo Squadron 20 (VT-20), USS Enterprise during the fall of 1944. On Sept. 10 of that year, Manown and two other crew members took off from the USS Enterprise to conduct air strikes against enemy targets in the Malakal Naval District in the Palau Islands.

Witnesses from other aircraft in the formation saw Manown’s plane get struck by enemy fire and crash into the water near Malakal. There were no indications that any of the crewmembers exited the aircraft prior to the crash, officials said.

All efforts to recover their remains at that time were unsuccessful, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

In the summer of 1947, searches of battle areas and crash sites in Palau were conducted, but investigators could not find any evidence of Manown or his aircraft. He was declared non-recoverable in 1949.

From 2003 to 2018, multiple investigations were conducted in the area, which resulted in the location of a site associated with the incident. In May 2019, September 2021 and July 2023, remains and other material evidence were recovered and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

Manown’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, officials said.

Thanks to Beth for capturing this moving ceremony for our readers.

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