Metuchen WWII Veteran's Remains Identified After 79 Years

METUCHEN, NJ — The remains of an Army Air Force veteran from Metuchen who was killed in World War II have been positively identified, the Department of Defense announced.

Staff Sgt. Michael Uhrin was 21 and serving as a radio operator on a B-17F Flying Fortress bomber when it was shot down on Oct. 14, 1943, according to the DOD.

Uhrin will be buried in Metuchen, though a date hasn’t been determined.

The DOD said Uhrin was assigned to 369th Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bombardment Group, 40th Combat Wing, 8th Air Force in the European Theater. His plane had departed Thurleigh, England and was one of 60 lost on the mission to Schweinfurt, Germany.

Seven of 10 crewmen on Uhrin's bomber bailed out and were taken prisoner; he and two others were killed. Surviving crew members reported he died before the bomber crashed near Rommelhausen and Langenbergheim in Hessen, Germany. No one witnessed him bail out, the DOD said.

There was no record of his burial location, though his death was confirmed.

Newspaper clippings posted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency show Uhrin registered for the service in 1942 and had left for the European Theater in September 1943, just a month before he died. Uhrin graduated from Metuchen High School and Middlesex County Vocational School before working for the Celotex Corporation, according to the historical articles.

The American Graves Registration Command investigated and recovered missing American personnel in Europe after the war, the DOD said. AGRC personnel investigated the area but could not find evidence associating him with any remains, according to the DOD. Uhrin was declared nonrecoverable in April 1955.

Historians from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) are conducting ongoing research focused on WWII air losses over Germany, the Department of Defense said. They located a set of remains "determined to be a strong candidate for association with Uhrin."

The remains — which were buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery in Belgium — were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis to identify Uhrin’s remains, as well as circumstantial evidence, while scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System performed DNA testing. He was accounted for in May, but his family only recently received their full briefing on the case, the DOD said.

Uhrin’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the United Kingdom, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, officials said.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.