St. Pete WWII Pilot’s Remains Finally Identified, Buried

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Decades after he went missing during World War II, a St. Petersburg fighter pilot’s remains were identified this spring, and he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery earlier this month.

First Lt. Newell F. Mills Jr., a 21-year-old Army Air Forces pilot went missing in the spring of 1945, according to a news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Assigned to the 354th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, he was piloting a P-51D Mustang fighter pilot on an April 7 mission escorting a formation of B-24 Liberator bombers to a target in Geesthacht, Germany, the agency said.

Before they could make it to their target, the formation encountered German fighters near Bremen. After the escort pilots engaged the Germans, Mills and his wingman never returned to base, DPAA said.

Mills was never reported as a prisoner of war and the United States War Department issued an administrative finding of death for him one year later on April 8, 1946.

After the war, the organization American Graves Registration Command, tasked with recovering fallen Americans, searched for Mills. By 1949, based on circumstantial evidence, they believed he was buried as Unknown X-5904 in what is called Ardennes American Cemetery in Neuville, Belgium, DPAA said. His family had him permanently buried there.

While searching for another fallen American pilot between 2004 and 2010, the organization realized that Mills had been misidentified in the 1940s and he was returned to an unaccounted-for status, according to the agency.

In 2012, German researchers began investigating a plane crash near Bothmer, Germany — near where Mills’ wingman had been found in 1946.

Witnesses told the researchers there had been an air battle in that area in April 1925 and an American airman parachuted into the Leine River. Unfortunately, he was already dead, killed by a gunshot wound, when his body was found by locals, the DPAA said.

One witness shown a picture of Mills told investigators he believed that was the man pulled from the Leine.

German researchers contacted the DPAA in December 2019, and the agency’s historians began investigating the case. Through their research, they found that it was likely Mills had actually been buried as Unknown X-632 in Neuville and the remains were sent to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for analysis.

DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosone DNA, and autosomal DNA to identify and account for his remains in March of this year.

He was buried Sept. 13 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia with full honors, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Mills was awarded the Air Medal with six oak leaf clusters — one silver and one bronze — the Distinguished Flying Cross, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the Purple Heart, according to the American Air Museum.

His niece, Tricia Mills Oeland of Massachusetts, told NBC 52, that she learned from the German researchers in March that her uncle’s remains had been found.

“(They) told me that he had been working on my uncle’s case for ten years and that it’s an incredible story and he couldn’t wait to talk to me. He was loved so much and missed so much, grandmother had her pictures on his TV and Newell was always part of our lives,” she said.