Military scientists have positively identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Ralph H. Bode, a 20-year-old airman from Racine, Wisconsin, who died in World War II when his B-24H Liberator was shot down over Germany on September 27, 1944. Using anthropological analysis and mitochondrial DNA, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency confirmed Bode's identity, nearly 80 years after the incident. While other crew members managed to bail out, Bode was not seen escaping, and after the war, he was declared dead in 1945. In 1951, locals in Richelsdorf, Germany, reported crash sites, leading to the recovery of remains, which were later exhumed in 2018 and 2022. His remains will be interred in Racine on September 27, 2024, marking the anniversary of his death, with a rosette placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing in Luxembourg American Cemetery.