Remains of WWII pilot to be buried

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

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.

Discovery

In 2004, however, a Fiji citizen reported to a United States official in Fiji that he’d found possible aircraft wreckage on Viti Levu Island. The site was investigated in 2005, and in 2006 a team excavated the site and recovered human remains and other items — including a pilot’s microphone electrical plug with Blose’s initials on it. Scientists also used dental comparisons to identify Blose’s remains.

Representatives from the Army met with Blose’s next-of-kin, his niece, Susan Blose Crowley of Hermitage, to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors.

Crowley, who was born in 1956, 14 years after her uncle died, said she nevertheless grew to know him well through reading the letters he wrote to her grandmother. She said Blose, who had always wanted to fly, attended the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1941 studying aeronautical engineering. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Feb. 15, 1941.

alcorn@vindy.com