WASHINGTON – The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing In Action Accounting Agency has announced the remains of Dahlen, North Dakota native Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Irvin Ellingson were accounted for on June 17.
North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said the DPAA identified Ellingson’s remains using anthropological and DNA analysis.
While serving in Tokyo, Japan during World War II in the spring of 1945, Ellingson was aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress as a radar observer when the aircraft was shot down over the Chiba Prefecture. Ellingson survived the crash, but was captured and held as a prisoner of war. He died at age 25 in a Tokyo military prison during a fire on May, 26, 1945.
Ellingson’s name is on the Courts of the Missing at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. A rosette will be placed next to his name to mark that he’s been identified.
Ellingson is scheduled will be buried in his hometown on June 20, 2026.
