Over 80 years have passed since US Army Air Forces (USAAF) second lieutenant Warren Singer went missing along with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane he had been maneuvering as he and 165 others crossed the sea toward Italy to conduct air raids on Manfredonia and Foggia.
Out of the 166 P-38s that had left, only 137 successfully completed their task. The rest had to turn back as they encountered mechanical issues. According to some of Singer's comrades' eyewitness accounts, they had seen Singer signaling that he was struggling to drop his fuel tanks, so he had to turn back.
However, on his way back, something must have happened, because nobody had seen him or his aircraft again. A year and a day after he went missing, he was officially declared deceased on August 26, 1944.
Now, the wreckage of the P-38 has been found by Italian divers about four miles off the coast of Manfredonia. Dr. Fabio Bisciotti, one of the divers who located and identified the wreck, said that Singer must have ditched the plane but possibly struggled and drowned, as Singer's remains were not in the wreckage.
Still, this provides much-needed closure for the family that Singer had left behind. He was only 22 years old when he went MIA, about five months after he had married his wife, Margaret, and was expecting a baby daughter, Peggy, who was born in January 1944.
Despite his unexpectedly short life, Warren has 12 descendants, along with his grandson Dave Clark who spoke with the media after the discovery of his late grandfather's aircraft.
(Image credit: US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons)