Seneca airman who died in WWII to be buried in Springfield, Mo.

FORT KNOX, Ky. (WIBW) - An airman from Seneca who died at the age of 23 in World War II in Romania will be buried in Springfield, Missouri.

The U.S. Army says that the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Moses F. Tate who was killed during World War II will be interred on Oct. 27 at Missouri Veterans Cemetery. It said graveside services will also be performed by Greenlawn Funeral Home, of Branson, before the interment.

The Army noted that Tate was a Seneca native and assigned to the 415th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force. He served as a gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator aircraft on Aug. 1, 1943, when it was hit by enemy fire and crashed.

According to the Army, the tragic events took place during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest Romania. It said Tate’s remains were not identified after the war and those that cannot be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

The Army noted that Tate was only 23 years old at the time of his death.

After the war, the Army indicated that the American Graves Registration Command disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification but was unable to identify more than 80 remains. Those were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery - both in Belgium.

In 2018, the Army said the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency started to exhume unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for Airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These were sent to the DPAA Lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for examination and identification.

According to the Army, Tate was accounted for by the DPAA on July 12, 2022, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.

The Army noted that Tate’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery - an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy - along with others still missing from Wordl War II. A rosette will be placed by his name to note that he has been accounted for.