Spargursville airman accounted for from World War II
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Wednesday that U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Given C. Grooms, 21, of Spargursville, Ohio, who was killed during World War II, was accounted for on June 9, 2026.
Grooms’s family recently received their full briefing on his identification; therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In the winter of 1944, Grooms was assigned to the 718th Bombardment Squadron, 449th Bombardment Group, in Italy. On Jan. 30, he was serving as the radio operator aboard a B-24 Liberator bomber on a mission to Udine, Italy. The plane was shot down while returning from its mission and was last sighted north of the Isle of Morgo off the Italian coast near the town of Grado.
Three crew members made it out of the plane before the crash, but only one survived. The other seven members, including Grooms, were believed to have still been in the aircraft when it crashed.
Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Service, U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American service members in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. AGRS investigators believed the aircraft crashed into the Adriatic Sea, so did not explore the marshy areas near Grado for wreckage. No remains recovered in the vicinity of Grado were ever associated with Grooms, and he was declared non-recoverable in August 1949.
In February 2010, a team of historians from a DPAA-predecessor organization traveled to the Isle of Morgo to investigate a lead on a possible WWII aircraft crash. Testimony from a local witness and 1945 aerial imagery of the site led the investigators to a duck pond and fish farm, where the team conducted a metal detector survey, finding a series of signals in the pond and along the southern bank.
In 2014, a team collecting additional pre-excavation data discovered human remains that were later identified as a crew member from Grooms’s aircraft. DPAA partnered with East Carolina University in early 2018 to conduct an additional survey for more accurate information in preparation for an excavation.
Four recovery efforts, led by DPAA partners Southeastern Archaeological Research, Tamarix Società Agricola Srls, and Isola Di Morgo Srl, were conducted between 2022 and 2025, finding aircraft wreckage, material evidence, life support equipment, and human remains, which was subsequently accessioned into the DPAA laboratory for scientific analysis.
To identify Grooms’ remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA, and autosomal DNA analysis.
Grooms’ name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Florence American, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Grooms will be buried in Waverly, Ohio, on Oct. 10.
For family and funeral information, call the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
For additional information on the War Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Grooms’ personnel profile can be viewed at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XjqAEAS.
Grooms’ initial ID announcement can be viewed at: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4547624/airm….