FORT KNOX, Ky. / BELTON, Texas (FOX 44) – The remains of a Soldier killed during World War II will be interred at North Belton Cemetery this Saturday. The Dossman Funeral Home in Belton will perform graveside services preceding the interment.

According to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Turner Y. Johnston is a native of Loraine, Texas. He was an engineer-gunner assigned to the 415th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force.

Johnston was serving aboard a B-24 Liberator bomber when it crashed on August 1, 1943, after being hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE. This was the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.

The U.S. Army Human Resources Command says Johnston’s remains were not identified following the war. Remains which could not be identified were buried as unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania. Johnston was 21 years old.

Following the war, the remains of all American service members were disinterred from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. More than 80 unknowns could not be identified and were interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.

In 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses, sending them to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.

The U.S. Army Human Resources Command says Johnston was accounted for by the DPAA after his remains were identified using anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.

Johnston’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been accounted for.