Photos: WWII airman buried at Riverside National Cemetery
In October 1943, Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Claude A. Ray of Coffeyville, Kan., and 10 other airmen were declared missing in action after their B-24 Liberator aircraft disappeared while flying over Papua New Guinea during World War II. In 2003, a Defense Department team received information on a crash site from a citizen on the island. On Wednesday -- 67 years to the day after he disappeared -- Ray was finally laid to rest. Ray, who was 24 when he went missing, was buried at Riverside National Cemetery, where his casket was carried by a California Army National Guard color guard. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A member of the California Army National Guard presents a flag to Ray’s nephew Burt Risser. To Risser’s left is Ray’s niece Karen Gideon. The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office returned Ray’s remains along with those of a fellow airman, Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Claude G. Tyler, 24, of Landover, Md., for burial with full military honors. Services for Tyler were held Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Mourners sing at the services for Ray at Riverside National Cemetery. A tail gunner on a B-24 Liberator, Ray had just completed what would have been his final mission before being sent home, but volunteered for the fateful mission to fill in for an airman who was unable to fly. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Family friend Connie Crossley, left, comforts Ray’s niece Karen Gideon, who could not hold her emotions as the casket carrying his remains arrived for burial at Riverside National Cemetery. In August 2003, the Joint Prisoners of War and Missing in Action Accounting Command received information of a possible crash site for Ray’s B-24 Liberator containing identification cards and possible human remains in Papua New Guinea. After failed attempts to reach the site in 2004, a team was able to excavate the site in March 2007 and found remains that matched DNA of Ray’s relatives. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A horse-drawn carriage carrying Ray’s casket makes its way through Riverside National Cemetery, where he was buried with full military honors -- 67 years to the day after he disappeared. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A military color guard salutes as the horse-drawn carriage carrying Ray’s casket makes its way through Riverside National Cemetery. The Department of Defense says he and the other crewmen on his B-24 Liberator took off from an airfield near Papua New Guinea on Oct. 27, 1943, and were to land near the Bismarck Sea, but the craft was lost. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Members of the Patriot Guard Riders hold flags high to salute as Ray’s casket passes by at Riverside National Cemetery. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
