Triplett, James M.
Army Technician sergeant

James M. Triplett from Washington, King county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Wednesday, September 27, 1944

Death details: Technical Sergeant Triplett entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Washington and served in the 700th Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group. On September 27, 1944, he was the radio operator on a B-24 Liberator that departed Tibenham, England, for a bombing mission against enemy installations in Kassel, Germany. During the mission, this Liberator was shot down by enemy fighters and crashed near Hersfeld, Germany. Six members of the crew were lost in the crash, and the remains of five could not be recovered or identified at the time. In 1951, American Graves Registration (ARGC) investigators discovered the crash site of TSG Triplett’s Liberator and recovered two sets of human remains. These could not be identified with the technology available and were interred as unknowns. Later, DPAA historians determined that these remains were strong candidates for identification, and they were sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and TSG Triplett.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency