Remains of WWII pilot from NKY return home

FORT THOMAS, Ky. (WXIX) - A World War II pilot will soon be laid to rest alongside his family in Northern Kentucky.

After more than 70 years, the remains of Army Air Force 1st Lieutenant Joe De Jarnette were accounted for, allowing his family in the Tri-State to bring him home.

On April 8, 1944, De Jarnette was piloting the B-24H Liberator when the plane was shot down by enemy fire during a bombing mission to Brunswick, Germany.

“I wake up a night thinking about that still,” says De Jarnette’s niece, Virginia Justice. “To have that happen, I know it was quick, but he had to see the pang shoot at them, so he knew it was coming. But that’s the thing that bothers me the most.”

According to the U.S. military, the crash site was never located by Allied forces during the war.

The remains of all 10 crewmembers, including De Jarnette, were unaccounted for.

Justice says, despite the military declaring De Jarnette was killed in action, her grandmother always held on to the hope he was still out there.

“She never believed til the day she died that he was dead,” Justice explained.

Last June, after nearly a decade of investigation involving a potential crash site in Germany, followed by excavation and recoveries, Justice says her family was contacted to provide DNA for testing.

Months later, she says they learned her Uncle Joe had finally been found and would be coming home.

“It makes me think the WWII people are not forgotten,” says Justice.

A memorial service for De Jarnette will be held in Fort Thomas this weekend before he makes his final trip to rest once and for all beside his parents at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

The public can pay their respects to De Jarnette from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on April 26 at Dobbling Funeral Home in Fort Thomas. A memorial service will follow.

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