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MILLINOCKET — More than 100 people gathered here on Saturday to honor the service of 2nd Lt. Ernest Vienneau, a pilot killed in action during WWII whose remains had been missing since 1944 and were only recently returned to his family for burial.
In the shadow of Mt. Katahdin, family, friends, members of the military and dozens of American Legion Honor Guard members on motorcycles paid tribute to Vienneau, who was 25 when he died. Following Mass at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, a Military Honors Team from Fort Drum in New York loaded the flag-draped coffin into a hearse for the short trip to the Millinocket Cemetery.
On a sunny, warm fall day, members of the honor guard from all over the state led the procession through town and up the road to the cemetery, where the local fire department had hoisted a flag high over the road in salute.
Graveside, the Rev. Dominic Savio sprinkled holy water on the casket, which was followed by the playing of Taps, a 21-gun salute and the presentation of the flag to the family.
Right on cue, a B-52 from the 97th Air Mobility Wing in Oklahoma – Vienneau’s base – flew over the ceremony.
For Chelsea Carbonell, Vienneau’s great-niece, it was the culmination of years of research and phone calls to find her grandfather’s brother.
“This was very important to our family and I feel like it’s something we’ve waited for for a long time,” she said shortly after the service.
She said Ernest was one of 12 children and her grandfather was a close sibling. Six of the Vienneau boys served in WWII, she said. Saturday’s service brought together many family members who had not seen each other in 20 years, she said.
“Our family definitely didn’t forget,” she said. “I know closure is important and to show honor is important.”
One mystery still remains about Vienneau. He was engaged to be married when he was killed in action and the family has photos of his fiancée, but they don’t know her name, she said.
Vienneau was a co-pilot on the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in the fall of 1944 when it came under heavy fire while flying over Yugoslavia, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was hit in the head with a piece of flak – a jagged metal fragment that tore through aircraft – mortally wounding him.
Crew members rendered aid to Vienneau as the pilot tried to fly the damaged B-17 back to base, but he could not make it and was forced to ditch off the coast of Vis Island, Croatia. The surviving 10 crew members made it out, but they could not recover Vienneau’s body from the sinking aircraft, according to the military account.
It seemed that a recovery might be possible in 2005 when the military received information about the wreck of a B-17 from the Croatian Administration for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. At that time, the military could not prove it was Vienneau’s plane.
Then in June 2017, a PBS Nova film crew dove at the wreckage site and found enough evidence so that a recovery mission could be planned. In the fall of 2020, the Croatian military recovered possible remains which were later confirmed through dental records and analysis to be Vienneau.
A rosette will be placed next to Vienneau’s name to indicate he has been accounted for at the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy.
Major Jeff Whitten, the Maine Army National Guard Casualty Assistance Officer, presented the flag to the family on Saturday, expressing condolences from the president, the Army and “a grateful nation.”
“Years later, thanks to many people looking for him, they brought him home to his final resting spot,” he said. “This has been a true honor and humbling experience.”