LORAIN, Ohio — Unknown remains from World War II have been identified as Lt. Steve Nagy, an Army Air Force pilot from Lorain who was shot down over Germany in the summer of 1944.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Nagy served as an Army Air Forces pilot in the 407th Bombardment Squadron, 92d Bombardment Group, 40th Combat Bombardment Wing, 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force. He died after his B-17 Flying Fortress was shot down over Germany on August 24, 1944. He was 23 years old.
Four of Nagy's nine crew members survived the crash. Nagy and four others were reportedly buried at Lindenthal Cemetery in Leipzig, Germany, according to the DPAA.
The DPAA states that after the war ended, members of the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) went to the cemetery and recovered three sets of remains. One was later identified, but the other two were marked as unknown and labeled as X-1047 and X-183.
In 1947, one of the sets of unknown remains was determined to be the remains of two people. The remains were separated and redesignated as X-1047A and X-1047B and then reburied at cemeteries in Europe.
The DPAA states that a historian looking into the history of the two unknown remains determined that they came from Nagy's B-17. The remains were exhumed and taken to a lab for further analysis. By using dental and anthropological analysis, the DPAA identified one of the sets of remains as Nagy.
Nagy's name is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium. The DPAA states that a rosette will be placed next to his name on the tablets to show he has been found and identified.
More than 400,000 Americans serving in the armed forces died in World War II. The DPAA states that there are more than 72,000 service members that served in the war and are still unaccounted for.
The DPAA states that Nagy will be reburied in Lorain, but a funeral date has not been announced.
