HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The remains of a WWII soldier from Harlingen were buried Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Porter M. Pile, who was killed during World War II, were buried on Oct. 31.
Pile, a Harlingen native, was a navigator to the 700th Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group, 2d Air Division, 8th Air Force. Pile was serving aboard the B-24H Liberator bomber when it crashed Sept. 27, 1944, after heavy resistance from enemy forces, the release stated.
His unit was part of a large mission to bomb Kassel, in northern Hesse, Germany. Six of the nine crew members on the aircraft were killed.
The War Department issued a finding of death for Pile on Sept. 28, 1945. Pile was 24 years old.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency led three recovery missions from 2015-2016, where they excavated the crash site recovering a data plate from Pile’s airplane, an identification tag for a member of Pile’s crew.
“Pile was accounted for by the DPAA Nov. 28, 2022, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, and Y chromosome DNA analysis,” the release stated.
Pile’s name was recorded on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery in the United Kingdom. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has now been accounted for.
