Funeral Set For WWII Vet Years After Disappearance

CharlotteObserver.com - Charlotte, NC, USA

The Associated Press
Posted: Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009

CHARLESTON, S.C. A World War II veteran who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean 65 years ago will be laid to rest Sunday in his native South Carolina.

Maj. Marion Ryan McCown Jr. will be buried after a memorial service at the Unitarian Church in Charleston.

The Post & Courier of Charleston reported Saturday that the Marines Corps is giving McCown a full military burial, including a fly over by F-18 Hornets.

"I'm expecting a full church," Mike McDaniel, funeral director at Stuhr's West Ashley funeral home, said. "This is a hero coming home."

McCown was a Marine aviator stationed in the Pacific during the war. He had been missing since Jan. 20, 1944, when he volunteered to escort a bombing mission in his Corsair F-4U.

Last year, a Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command team found his plane and remains in New Guinea.

Born in the South Carolina Lowcountry in 1917, McCown was a licensed pilot and a student at Georgia Tech when he enlisted after the war began.

His nephew, John Almeida, and a few other family members plan to attend Sunday's service. Almeida said he feared there were few people living who knew his uncle.

McDaniel said he has heard from a number of veterans, including one man who said he was saved by McCown's fighter squadron during the war.