By Daniela Vestal, U.S. Army Human Resources Command

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William E. Archer Jr., 22, killed during World War II, will be interred June 25 in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery in Dallas, Texas. Service and interment will be coordinated by Bluebonnet Hills Funeral Home.

In the fall of 1944, Archer served with the 15th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Photographic Reconnaissance Group. On Oct. 31, he piloted an F-5B reconnaissance aircraft, which is the same as a P-38 fighter whose weapons were replaced with reconnaissance gear, on a mission over southern Yugoslavia.

After taking off, Archer made a routine call to local fighter sector control but then was never heard from again. There are no reports of his capture or death, and a crash site associated with Archer or his plane was never found. A presumptive finding of death was issued Nov. 1, 1945.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Archer on Feb. 4, 2026.

For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Archer, please visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4442809/pilot-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-archer-jr-w/

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 Bluebonnet Hills Funeral Home, 817-498-5894.

Pilot Accounted For From World War II (Archer, Jr., W.)

Press Release, March 24, 2026

WASHINGTON  –  The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William E. Archer, Jr., 22, killed during World War II, was accounted for Feb. 4, 2026.

In the fall of 1944, Archer served with the 15th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Photographic Reconnaissance Group. On Oct. 31, he piloted an F-5B reconnaissance aircraft, which is the same as a P-38 fighter whose weapons were replaced with reconnaissance gear, on a mission over southern Yugoslavia. After taking off, Archer made a routine call to local fighter sector control, but then was never heard from again. There are no reports of his capture or death, and a crash site associated with Archer or his plane was never found. A presumptive finding of death was issued Nov. 1, 1945.

This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Archer’s case will be published once his family receives a full briefing.

For additional information on the War Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while service their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media.

DPAA Service Member Profile for 2nd Lt. William E. Archer, Jr.

On Feb. 4, 2026, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William Earl Archer Jr., missing from World War II.

Archer entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Kansas and served in the 15th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Photographic Reconnaissance Group. On Oct. 31, 1944, he was the pilot on an F-5B Lightning assigned to a photographic reconnaissance mission over German-occupied Yugoslavia. Taking off from Bari Airdrome, Italy, Archer flew toward the Podgorica area to photograph retreating German forces and the transportation infrastructure they were using to move north. Shortly after departure he made a routine radio call to local fighter sector control, but Allied forces never heard from him again. The aircraft failed to return from the mission, and Archer was listed as missing in action. In July 1947, investigators from the American Graves Registration Service recovered a set of unidentified remains from a crash site on Mount Kopitnik near the village of Čevo, in present-day Montenegro. The remains were found near the wreckage of a P-38-type aircraft, which was visually similar to the F-5B reconnaissance variant. Local witnesses reported that an aircraft had crashed into the mountain during poor weather in November 1944. The remains, designated X-56, were buried in the United States Military Cemetery in Belgrade in October 1947. In August 1949, officials determined the remains could not be identified and reinterred them at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, as an Unknown. In March 2022, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains designated X-56 from the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and transferred them to a DPAA laboratory for further analysis. There, scientists used modern forensic techniques to identify Archer.

He is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.