Army Air Corps pilots remains found

HERMITAGE, Pa. — Lt. James W. Blose, an Army Air Corps pilot who went missing April 22, 1942, when his plane crashed on Viti Levu Island, Fiji, is home at last.

His remains, found in 2005 by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, will be buried with full military honors Saturday in Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery, Sharon, Pa., near the graves of his parents, Edison Clyde Blose and Twila Loretta (Robinson) Blose.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the John Flynn Funeral Home in Sharon.

Blose, a 1936 graduate of Sharpsville High School, and another pilot had departed Nausori Airdrome, Viti Levu Island, Fiji, in their Airacobra P-39Ds on an airborne alert mission. Soon after takeoff, bad weather forced the pilots to fly below the level of several mountain tops in the area. The other pilot successfully landed his plane at Nandi Airdrome in the area, but Blose was not seen nor heard from again, according to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office in Washington, D.C.

For more, see Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com