Remains of Soldier killed during World War II to be interred at Acacia in Lake Forest Park

No longer Unknown, WW II soldier
will be interred at Acacia.
Photo courtesy Defense Dept. 

FORT KNOX, Ky. - The remains of a Soldier killed during World War II will be interred at Acacia Memorial Park, February 3, 2022. 

Funeral services for Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Anel B. Shay Jr. will be performed by Acacia Memorial Park and Funeral Home preceding the interment.

A native of Seattle, Shay was a member of the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. 

On August 1, 1943, he was serving as a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator aircraft, when the plane crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. 

Following the war, his remains could not be identified and were buried as Unknown in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania. He was 26 years old.

2nd Lt. Anel Shay Jr. with his bomber group
Photo courtesy Dept of Defense

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command, the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for
identification but was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery. 

Those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.

In 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with 'unaccounted for airmen' from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. The remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

Newspaper clipping courtesy Dept of Defense

Shay was accounted for by the DPAA on June 28, 2021, after his remains were identified using dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA analysis.

His 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 World War II. 

A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

To learn more about the Department of Defense's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call (703) 699-1420/1169.