The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office has identified nine airmen missing in action from World War II. They are: 2nd Lt. Hugh L. Johnson Jr. of Montgomery, Ala.; 2nd Lt. Byron L. Stenen of Northridge, Calif.; 2nd Lt. John F. Green of Watertown, N.Y.; 2nd Lt. John M. Meisner of Pembroke, Mass.; SSgt. Walter Knudsen of Sioux City, Iowa; Cpl. John A. DeCarlo of Newark, N.J.; Cpl. Robert E. Raney of Monon, Ind.; Cpl. William G. Mohr of Mt. Wolf, Pa.; and Cpl. Michael J. Pushkar of Mahanoy City, Pa. They took off on the morning of Oct. 9, 1944, in their B-24D Liberator to fly a training mission from New Guinea. The aircraft was never seen again, and officials speculated the crew ran into bad weather. In 2002, US officials learned that villagers in Morobe Province, New Guinea, had found two dog tags and launched an investigation.
House lawmakers unveiled a new reconciliation package July 15 with $60 billion for defense, $290 billion less than the Pentagon has been seeking, a day after a Senate vote to advance the annual defense policy bill failed—developments that show the perilous state of the Pentagon’s ambitious plans for fiscal 2027.