Second Lt. Robert R. Keown was piloting his P-38 aircraft to an airfield after a mission in 1944 when it crashed into a mountain in Papua New Guinea. World War II ended without Keown’s family knowing what had happened to him, and the military later declared him dead.
Decades later, a villager found human remains in a swampy area near the mountain. Another resident of the Pacific island snapped a photo of the rusted wreckage of a warplane years after that.
The photos led to the remains of Robert R. Keown located and returned to the U.S. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery June 15, 2018.
See the article in Air Force Times to learn more about Keown how he was found,