Airman Accounted For From World War II (Salsbury, R.)

WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Richard G. Salsbury, 19, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 23, 2021.

In the summer of 1943, Salsbury was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Salsbury was serving as a gunner crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or

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SALSBURY; RICHARD GERALD
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES
WORLD WAR II
ME
Individual Type Accounted For
Rank S Sgt
Service Number 11016927
Location Rumania
Date of Loss 8/01/1943
Unit 345 BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON 98 BOMBARDMENT GROUP (HEAVY)

On September 23, 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant Richard Gerald Salsbury, missing from World War II.

Staff Sergeant Salsbury entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Maryland and served in the 345th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group. On August 1, 1943, Operation TIDAL WAVE was launched, a bombing raid against the oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania. One hundred and seventy-seven B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, for the raid. Fifty-one planes failed to return, including the one (serial number 42-40312) on which SSG Salsbury was a gunner. His remains were not identified following the war. Operation TIDAL WAVE, while successfully damaging the Ploiești oil refineries, cost the lives of hundreds of USAAF airmen, many of whom were interred by Romanian citizens into the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiești. During postwar operations there, the American Graves Registration Command exhumed unknown remains that were eventually reinterred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. In 2017, DPAA began exhuming those unknowns for comparison with the unaccounted-for airmen lost during Operation TIDAL WAVE. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and SSG Salsbury.

Staff Sergeant Salsbury is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy.

Richard G Salsbury