ORLANDO, Fla. — The remains of an Orlando airman who died as a prisoner of war during World War II have been identified more than 80 years later.
U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Leonard J. McNeill was 27 when he died in Japan. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said he was officially accounted for Oct. 9, 2025, but details were withheld until his family received a full briefing.
McNeill served as a tail gunner aboard a B-29 Superfortress assigned to the 881st Bombardment Squadron and 500th Bombardment Group.
In April 1945, his aircraft crashed during a bombing mission targeting an aircraft engine plant in Musashino City, Japan. The exact circumstances remain unclear, but records indicate crews on the mission saw a plane explode near the target before falling to the ground.
McNeill survived the crash and was taken prisoner. He died May 26, 1945, during a fire at the Tokyo Military Prison.
After the war, American personnel recovered 65 sets of remains from the prison but could not identify McNeill. Thirty-nine unidentified sets of remains connected to the prison were eventually buried at what is now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
The agency exhumed those remains in March and April 2022 for additional testing.
Scientists identified McNeill using anthropological analysis, historical evidence and several forms of DNA testing.
McNeill’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. A rosette will be placed beside his name to show that he has been accounted for.
McNeill will be buried Nov. 11 in Orlando.
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