Lost in 1944 on Spy Mission, WWII Flyer Will Be Laid to Rest in Rhode Island
McKinney entered the service from Rhode Island and served in the 35th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 14th Air Force.
On Nov. 5, 1944, he departed Yunnanyi, China, piloting an F-5 Lightning (serial number 43-38615) on a reconnaissance mission over Thailand and Burma. No contact was made with the aircraft after it left base.
A wartime report from the Royal Thai Air Force Museum indicated a plane was hit by lightning, exploded, and crashed in a wooded area in Ban Mae Kua, Sop Prap District, Lampang Province, Thailand.
In 2018, third-party researchers located a crash site in a rice paddy in Lampang Province and associated it with McKinney's aircraft.
A Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency team investigated the site in 2019 and 2021 before a recovery team excavated the location in 2022, recovering possible human remains.
The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. There, scientists used modern forensic techniques to identify McKinney.
The DPAA accounted for McKinney on May 15, 2026.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify McKinney, please visit: [https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4531568/pilot-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-mckinney-f/](https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4531568/pilot-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-mckinney-f/)
U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.
Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Avery-Storti Funeral Home, 401-783-7271.
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