A World War II airman's remains were found nearly 80 years later. Sgt. John Holoka was in a plane crash, and his family went nearly six decades without answers.
He told Fox News Digital in an interview that the news — and the details — brought much-needed closure.that he crashed in different parts of Europe," Levatino said about his great-uncle, Sgt. John Holoka.
For nearly six decades, Levatino’s grandmother and her siblings wrote letters to the Army — hoping and praying to get answers and specifics about how the young airman died. The representative asked Levatino if he would be willing to give DNA, potentially to connect that DNA with any remains of Holoka that might be found. NEW JERSEY MAN WALKS ACROSS US TO RAISE NEARLY $100K FOR HOMELESS VETS: ‘RESPECT AND REVERENCE’"You can imagine what I felt there, that they knew where he was," Levatino told Fox News Digital.
The pilot was somehow able to keep the plane moving over the English coast — before ordering the crew to bail, according to the Dept. of Defense. But 24-year-old Lt. William Montgomery, co-pilot John Crowther and engineer Sgt. John Holoka all remained on board to try to recover the aircraft, as Fox News Digital reported earlier.
Co-pilot Crowther was immediately recovered — but Montgomery and Holoka remained lost for decades, National Geographic reported. Holoka, who was an engineer on the B-24H Liberator, would have been sitting near the front of the plane, said Levatino; this is where the engineers would sit during flight.
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