Aiken, Donald C.
Army Sergeant

Donald C. Aiken from Snohomish County Washington.

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 Sergeant Donal C. Aiken, missing from World War II. Sergeant Aiken entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Washington and served in the 678th Bombardment Squadron, 444th Bombardment Group. On June 27, 1944, he flew as an observer 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 Sgt Aiken, 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 possible osseous remains and material evidence. These material remains and 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 Sgt Aiken.
Cemetery: Tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery

Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency