Heffernan, John Joseph
Army Private 1st class

John Joseph Heffernan from New York, Kings county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Tuesday, February 22, 1944
Death details: On November 2, 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of John Joseph Heffernan Jr., missing from World War II. First Lieutenant Heffernan entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from New York and served in the 490th Bombardment Squadron, 490th Bombardment Group. On February 22, 1944, a B-25G Mitchell (serial number 42-64779) with a crew of seven took off from Kurmitola, India, for a bombing mission against railroads in Monywa, Burma. 1LT Heffernan was the navigator on this plane. While en route to the target, this Mitchell caught fire and crashed into a field on the banks of the Chindwin River, near Letpadaung, Burma. Local villagers reported that the entire aircrew had perished in the crash, and Japanese military personnel had confiscated all items of personal property before instructing the locals to bury the bodies. In 1947, the bodies of the missing aircrew were deemed to be non-recoverable due to the uncertainty of the location of the remains and the inability to obtain local permission to excavate the crash site. In 2017, the DPAA began investigating this incident, and in 2018, was able to confirm the location of the crash site with eyewitness statements from the local residents and recovery of aircraft wreckage. From January to March 2019, the DPAA conducted a recovery mission at the site. Possible human remains (including dental material), possible life support equipment, and personal effects were recovered in association with the possible human remains. The retained evidence was accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory on March 13, 2019. Laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established that among these remains were those of 1LT Heffernan.

Source: National Archives