Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Col. Addison Baker to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery nearly 80 years after death
ARLINGTON, Va. (September 7, 2022) — The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) honors U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Col. Addison Baker, who was killed in World War II and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He will be laid to final rest Sept. 14 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Accounted for nearly 80 years after his death, Baker’s remains were positively identified April 8, 2022, by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
In August of 1943, Baker was piloting a B-24 Liberator bomber as part of the “Black Sunday” raid during Operation TIDAL WAVE, a strategic bombing mission on oil fields and refineries in Romania. Baker’s plane was hit and downed by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing run, but not before he dropped his bombs on target. His remains were not identified after the crash, and were included with those buried in the Bolovan Cemetery in Romania. All American remains were later disinterred from Bolovan, and those without identification were interred as unknowns at ABMC’s Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming the more than 80 unknown graves associated with the bombing raid at the two ABMC cemeteries. Baker was the 17th person identified among the unknowns, and as commander of the 328thBombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force, the Ohio native was the most senior and most decorated.
Baker’s name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, along with more than 1,400 others who are still missing from World War II. ABMC has placed a bronze rosette beside his name, indicating he has now been accounted for.
For more information on Baker, visit the DPAA website.
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