John M. Carroll

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. John M. Carroll, 32, of New York, New York, killed during World War II, was accounted for Aug. 23, 2022.

Technical Sergeant Carroll entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from New York and in the summer of 1943, Carroll was assigned to the 328th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On August 1, 1943, Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania, was launched. One hundred and seventy-seven B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, for the raid. TSG Carroll was the radio operator on one (serial number 42-40999) of the fifty-one B-24 Liberator bombers that were hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.

In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

To identify Carroll’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Carroll’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

A funeral service will be held at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at the Fort Myer Old Post Chapel with interment following at Arlington National Cemetery.

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