Navigator’s body returns to St. Joseph

ST. JOSEPH (AP) - Helen Pennington was young and pregnant when the plane carrying her first husband crashed during a World War II mission.

But the widow was unable to bury David Eppright because the location of the wreckage was not known. Eppright, a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force, had navigated the B-24D Liberator that never returned from the mission shadowing a Japanese convoy.

That changed four years ago when a hunter found the plane in a mountain gully in New Guinea.

Just last month, the Army dispatched a casualty official to St. Joseph to deliver Eppright’s dog tags and a report about the crash to Pennington.

The couple’s son, David Bauman, flew in from Pittsburgh, Pa., for the presentation.

Eppright’s remains are scheduled to arrive May 20.

After a memorial service three days later in St. Joseph, Eppright will be buried with military honors at Sunset Hills Cemetery in his native Warrensburg. A missing-in-action marker had stood for decades in the graveyard.

---

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.