BLUFFDALE — The sound of faucets playing through bagpipes was transmitted through the fresh fall air Tuesday when U. S. Air Force Sgt. U. S. Elvin L. Phillips returned home after nearly 80 years when his remains were interred in Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park.
Phillips, a resident of Salt Lake City, was assigned to 66th Bombardment Squadron (heavy), 44th Bombardment Group (heavy) and 8th Air Force in the summer of 1943.
On August 1, 1943, Phillips was serving as a gunner in a B-24 Liberator aircraft when it crashed after being hit by enemy anti-aircraft chimney Operation Tidal Wave, the largest bombing project opposite the oil fields, near Ploiesti, Romania. .
He was 23 when he died.
After the war, Phillips’ remains were not known and he was buried in the heroes’ segment of the civil and military cemetery in Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
“For nearly 80 years, his entire story is known only to God,” said Major Chaplain Timothy Clayson. “Now, by the mercy of that same God, he is known by his circle of relatives and the network that sent him to fight. on foreign soil for the freedom we all enjoy to this day. “
At the end of the war, the American Grave Registration Command exhumed all American remains from Bolovan Cemetery for identification. More than 80 unknown infantrymen may simply not be known and were permanently buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, either in Belgium.
Then, in 2017, the Prisoner of War and Missing in Defense Action Accounting Agency began exhuming unknown infantrymen suspected of being airmen who lacked Operation Tsunami. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.
Five years after this process, Phillips was thought of as part of the Prisoner of War and Missing in Defense Action Accounting Agency on March 23, after his remains were known through anthropological analysis, mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA, and autosomal DNA.
“Sergeant Phillips’ recovery brought together a combined circle of family and friends, old and new, to mourn the loss of this young hero,” Clayson said.
Phillips’ nephew, Frank Moe, said he personally sent DNA to help identify his lost uncle and “tickled him with rose” to watch his uncle come home and be buried.
“I am extremely happy today. I’m glad it’s over,” Moe said. “His parents are also buried here in Salt Lake, so I’m happy. “
His call is engraved on the tombstones of the missing at the American Cemetery in Florence, one of the U. S. Battle Monuments Commission. The U. S. Department of Agriculture in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to your call to imply that he has been taken into account.
Moe added that Phillips’ brother, who died a few years ago, said that if Phillips was ever discovered, he would like to be brought home.
“Then it happened,” Moe said.