WW2 B-29 Flight Officer Remains Recovered
The remains of a World War 2 Soldier from Marquette, Michigan are to be buried at the in Ohio. U.S. Army Air Force Flight Officer, Chester L. Rink, 33, was killed in action on June 26th, 1944. Chester was a flight officer assigned to the 678th bombardment squadron, 444th bombardment group, 58th bombardment wing, and twentieth bomber command. Rink died after the B–29 Superfortress, on which he was serving, crashed into a rice paddy in a village in Sapekhati, India, after a bombing raid on Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata, Kyushu Island, Japan. In October 2014, an investigation team recovered life support equipment and wreckage associated with the B29 aircraft from the crash site. Investigators later excavated the site in 2018 and 2019 recovering possible remains and material evidence. Rink was accounted for by the defense P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Agency on May 5, 2023 after his remains were identified using material evidence, anthropological, and mitochondrial DNA analysis. A burial is scheduled for 10:15 a.m, November 6th at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman, Ohio.