The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Joe A. De Jarnette, a pilot originally from Fort Thomas who died in action during the Second World War, will be interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Erlanger on April 26.
De Jarnette died on April 8, 1944, at the age of 24 when a German fighter shot down the B-24 bomber he was flying on a bombing mission to Brunswick, Germany. His remains were not recovered until recently, sometime between 2021 and 2023, according a press release from the U.S. Army, during a excavation of the crash site by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was officially accounted for on June 20, 2024.
The funerary services will be performed by Dobbling, Muehlenkamp-Erschell Funeral Home. A visitation will take place the funeral home’s Fort Thomas location on Fort Thomas Avenue from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. with funeral services beginning at 11 a.m. A burial ceremony with full military honors will take place afterwards at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Erlanger.
You can learn more about De Jarnette and the process by which his remains were recovered at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s dedicated webpage.
