LIMA — The images of flag-draped coffins bringing deceased soldiers home from war can often bring out intense emotion, especially from members of the military and their families. However, as grief-filled as those moments can be, losing a soldier and not having a body to lay to rest can add even more pain and heartache for families.
An organization called History Flight has a mission of, “traveling around the world to find lost veterans—all deceased veterans— and bring them home,” according to Justin “JD” LeHew, Chief Operating Officer for History Flight. LeHew, a Columbus Grove native, served 31 years in the Marine Corps, retiring in 2018. He currently resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
“Running all the search and recovery teams globally keeps me pretty busy,” he said.
Bringing military personnel home has become a theme for LeHew. He was involved in the rescue of Jessica Lynch in 2003. Lynch was serving with the U.S. Army when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi troops on March 23, 2003 during the battle of Nasiriyah. She was seriously injured and captured by Iraqi soldiers. Her successful rescue by U.S. special operations forces on April 1, 2003 was the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II.
LeHew’s wife, a former Navy corpsman, and his daughter also assist with History Flight activities.
History Flight is a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, recovering and repatriating America’s servicemen listed as Missing in Action. Since its founding in 2003, History Flight missions have recovered the remains of over 100 missing servicemen and helped return them to their families.
However, this is the tip of the iceberg for this kind of work. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is an organization within the U.S. Department of Defense whose mission is to recover American military personnel listed as prisoners of war or missing in action from designated past conflicts from countries around the world. The agency maintains a record of and investigates all active cases of missing military personnel from World War II and beyond. There are currently approximately 80,000 people on the list.
One name no longer on that list, however, is Carl Nesbitt.
A lost son of Allen County
Carl Davis Nesbitt graduated from Lima Central High School with the class of 1939 and left Allen County to attend college at Miami University in Oxford. Nesbitt completed his junior year at Miami and then enlisted in the Army Air Forces. He received his wings in August 1943.
On May 29, 1944, 1st Lt. Nesbitt was the pilot on a B-17 Flying Fortress, named “The Yankee Doodle Dandy,” with a crew of 10. The crew was part of a huge bombing mission against enemy targets over Leipzig, Germany.
“I couldn’t imagine that [level of] responsibility,” LeHew said. “He went from working at Kolter-Buckeye Dairy to piloting a B-17.”
During the mission, Nesbitt’s plane was damaged by enemy fighters, catching on fire and falling out of formation roughly 28 miles northeast of Leipzig. Six crew members succeeded in parachuting from the stricken bomber before it crashed near Horst. They were held captive by the Germans as prisoners of war and later returned to U.S. custody.
Their reports indicated that the No. 3 engine of the plane was on fire at the time of the crash. Witnesses of the disabled plane saw one crew member attempt to bail out from a low altitude. That crew member was killed when his parachute failed to deploy. His remains were buried in a civilian cemetery and later recovered. The remains of the remaining three crew members, including Nesbitt, were not recovered at the time. The other crew members included the top turret gunner, the navigator and the bombardier.
Crash site located
In July 2012, an investigation team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a DPAA predecessor organization, located the site of Nesbitt’s plane crash and recovered evidence of the B-17. In 2019, the DPAA partnered with History Flight to excavate the crash site. The History Flight team of specialists led by lead archaeologist James Fenn and Team Leader, Coleman “Rocky” Kinzer, recovered material evidence and traces of human remains.
“DNA technology has made leaps and bounds” in the ability to positively identify remains and return them to their native countries, LeHew said.
The identity of recovered remains has often been presumed based on the circumstances of the case, particularly when no “dog tags” are found. When the circumstances are suggestive of a specific individual, a DNA swab may be requested from a family member. Scientists then attempt to match the DNA of remains or fragments of remains in an effort to obtain a more conclusive identification.
The materials recovered from the crash site were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha. On Sept. 9, 2022 laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between the remains and the three unaccounted-for crew members from the aircraft, including 1st Lt. Nesbitt.
Plans for interment
The Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) is a government case file for every missing aircrew. Nesbitt’s case file was 5313. William Cox, the case manager for the Nesbitt file, confirmed that Nesbitt’s remains are currently at Offutt Air Force Base. A briefing was held with Nesbitt’s sister, Marciel Seckman, who resides in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. According to Cox, Seckman is Nesbitt’s primary next of kin. Arrangements have been made for Nesbitt’s remains to be buried in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania. The choice of resting place stems from the cemetery’s close proximity to Seckman, being 40 miles from Carlisle.
After decades of waiting, Seckman will finally get to see her brother’s remains laid to rest in American soil at a graveside service scheduled for May 15.
