Lost in 1945, WWII Flyer Returns Home to Rest in Tennessee
Cianciolo entered the service from Tennessee and served in the 67th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group. On Aug. 16, 1943, he was the assistant engineer on board a B-24D Liberator that took off from Benina, Libya, along with 25 other B-24s on a bombing mission against enemy airfields at Foggia, Italy.
The operation inflicted heavy damage on the targets, but seven of the aircraft, including this B-24D, failed to return to base. Searchers found no possible crash location nor any signs or remains of the 10 missing crew members.
In April 1945, the American Graves Registration Command recovered several unidentified, commingled sets of remains buried in the Cemetery of Lacedonia, Italy. The remains were reportedly of American airmen who were shot down on Aug. 16, 1943. Investigators located the aircraft wreckage but could not find any information to identify the aircraft at the crash site. The remains could not be identified at the time and were interred as unknowns in the U.S. Military Cemetery in Naples.
In June 2022, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the unknowns and transferred them to the DPAA laboratory. There, scientists used modern forensic techniques to identify Cianciolo.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Cianciolo on May 29, 2026.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Cianciolo, please visit: [https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001EhN2JEAV](https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001EhN2JEAV)
U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.
Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Memphis Funeral Home, 901-725-0100.
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