Rinke, Chester L.
Army Flight officer

Chester L. Rinke, age 33, from Marquette County Michigan.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Tuesday, June 27, 1944
Death details: On May 5, 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Flight Officer Chester L. Rinke, missing from World War II. Flight Officer Rinke entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Michigan and served in the 678th Bombardment Squadron, 444th Bombardment Group. On June 27, 1944, he was the flight engineer aboard a B-29 Superfortress (serial number 42-6323) carrying eleven crew members on a bombing raid against enemy installations on Kyushu Island, Japan. After completing its mission, the Superfortress crashed into a flooded rice paddy field while flying over Sapekhati, India, killing all those aboard. Following the crash, members of the 342nd Service Squadron, 329th Service Group visited the crash site and identified the remains of seven crew members. The other four crew members, including FO Rinke, were declared non-recoverable by the American Graves Registration Command in a 1948 review. In October 2014 the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (a DPAA predecessor organization) conducted a Joint Field Activity in Sapekhati which led to the location of the crash site and the recovery of equipment and wreckage associated with the B-29 aircraft. In 2018 and 2019, Southeastern Archaeological Research (SEARCH), a DPAA partner organization, excavated the site and recovered osseous remains and material evidence. These remains and material evidence were later consolidated by the DPAA laboratory for further study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one portion of these remains and FO Rinke.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency