Courtesy Story, U.S. Army Human Resources Command
FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Given C. Grooms, 21, of Spargursville, Ohio, who was killed during World War II, will be interred Oct. 10 at Mt. Latham Cemetery in Waverly, Ohio. Services and interment are being coordinated by Boyer Funeral Home.
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.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Grooms on June 9, 2026.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Grooms, please visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4621206/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-grooms-g/
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 Boyer Funeral Home, 740-947-2161.
