Horrigan, Richard W.
Army 1st lieutenant

Richard W. Horrigan from West Virginia, Hancock county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Thursday, April 19, 1945
Death details: First Lieutenant Horrigan entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from West Virginia and served in the 22nd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Group. 1LT Horrigan went missing on April 19, 1945, during an armed reconnaissance mission to Alt Lönnewitz Airfield, Germany. He was flying a P-47 Thunderbolt (serial number 42-25956) at the time. 1LT Horrigan joined several other pilots in strafing the airfield. His aircraft crashed during this action, likely due to anti-aircraft fire. His remains could not be recovered following his loss. In 2004, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigation team, in conjunction with third party researchers, investigated this incident and located a P-47 crash site at the Alt Lönnewitz Airfield. In March 2017, a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) investigation team returned to the area. Interviews with the local administration and research into cemetery records confirmed that there was no information about the burial of any pilots recovered from wreckage in the area, suggesting that 1LT Horrigan’s remains had not been removed from the wreckage. In June 2019, DPAA contracted History Flight, Inc. to excavate the crash site. The excavation team recovered aircraft wreckage and possible human remains. In August 2019, the remains recovered from the crash site near the Alt Lönnewitz Airfield were accessioned into the DPAA identification laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between the remains and 1LT Horrigan.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency