KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Nearly 80 years after a 24-year-old Kalamazoo native was killed in the European Theater, the U.S. Department of Defense now says he's accounted for.
U.S. Army Air Force 1st Lt. Richard J. Kasten served in the 68th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and was the navigator aboard a B-24D Liberator when he was killed in action on Jan. 21, 1944.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said he entered the Army Air Forces from Michigan and on Jan. 21, 1944, he was a crew member on a B-24 Liberator, nicknamed "Ram It Damn It."
The men were on a bombing mission seeking out V-1 missile sites at Écalles-sur-Buchy, France.
The U.S. Dept. of Defense says during their raid, German air forces attacked the bomber formation.
Kasten's plane was hit by enemy fire and eventually crashed near Lignières-Châtelain, where four crew members lost their lives.
Of the 11 men on board, seven of them bailed out. The Germans took them as prisoners and they were eventually returned to U.S. custody.
German forces collected three sets of remains from the crash site who were later identified as members of this crew. They were interred in a French cemetery.
Kasten’s remains were not reported among those buried by German forces, and he was listed as Killed In Action by October 1944.
American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) personnel exhumed American remains from Poix cemetery in June 1945, where they recovered the remains of three of 1st Lt. Kasten's crewmates and four sets of unknown remains, including one set designated X-411 St. Andre (X-411). These remains were ultimately interred in Suresnes American Cemetery in France.
In 1945, teams from the AGRC searched the area around Lignières-Châtelain, but they uncovered no new leads regarding the disposition of 1st Lt. Kasten’s remains.
Fast forward to April 2019, historians from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed X-411 from Suresnes American Cemetery. They transferred them to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis where it was later determined the remains of X-411 belonged to Kasten.
Personnel used DNA to confirm his identity. He was officially accounted for in July 2023, but his family only recently received a full briefing on how officials identified him.
Kasten’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Ardennes American Cemetery, France, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
1st Lt. Kasten will be buried in Battle Creek at a later date.
You can read Kasten's personnel profile here.
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