Military officials said this week that a World War II pilot was remembered for helping military personnel survive the crash that killed him.

The Defense Pow/MIA Accounting Bureau said in a press release that local newspaper clippings collected by the Army Air Force, Charles W. DPAA showed that McCook graduated from Southwestern University and came from a group of pilots before joining the army.

According to newspaper clippings, McCook is known as "Woody" and serves in China and Myanmar. He was one of 20 officers and invited a mission that was a task that replenished the Allied air conditioner that fought against the Japanese in northern Myanmar. During his service, McCook received an aviation medal and an outstanding flying cross, according to newspaper clippings.

On August 3, 1943, McCook was an armored gunman of the B-25C "Mitchell" who bombed Meiktila at a low altitude, the DPAA said. According to newspaper cuts, the purpose of the raid was to target the Miktila Dam and nearby Japanese barracks.

The plane crashed during a mission. McCook and three others on three other planes died, but two survived. One of the survivors was identified as a sergeant in newspaper clippings. John Boyd said the plane was hit by an explosive gas enclosure while flying low. Boyd recalls McCook, who was “the best person in the business”, was able to bring the damaged aircraft to an altitude, allowing Boyd and other surviving soldiers to parachute from the spacecraft before crashing.

Boyd said the action allowed him to survive. DPAA said he and other soldiers were captured by the Japanese army. Boyd spent two years in Yangon's prisoners before being released, according to newspaper clippings.

McCook's body was not recovered. Ultimately, he was listed as a missing in the action. In 1947, after the end of World War II, the U.S. Grave Registration Agency recovered four sets of remains from an ordinary grave near a village in Myanmar, DPAA said.

The DPAA said locals said the four groups of remains of designated X-282A-D were from "American crash." But the body was not confirmed at that time. They were buried in the Pacific National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii or the National Memorial Cemetery in Punchbowl. McCook's name is listed on the missing wall of the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

In January 2022, DPAA unraveled all four sets of remains and took Go to the laboratory of the institution. Teeth, anthropological and isotope analyses were performed. Other military agencies use mitochondrial DNA analysis and genome sequencing data to help identify remains. These processes allow the DPAA to identify one of the groups belonging to McCook.

McCook has now been considered, and on the missing wall, a rosette is placed next to his name. The DPAA said he will be buried in his hometown in August 2025.