NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Pentagon’s POW/Missing Personnel Office says the remains of two World War II Marines from Louisiana and Missouri will be buried Friday with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Staff Sgt. Thomas Meek, 19, of Lisbon, La., and 23-year-old Capt. Henry White, of Kansas City, died when their bomber crashed in what is now Vanuatu during a night training flight on July 21, 1943.

The plane crashed on a coral cliff on Mavea Island. An investigation in 1947 did not recover any remains. One last year found human remains, a captain’s bars and Meek’s military ID tag.

Because no individual identification was possible, the men will be buried in a single casket.