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WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Chester native whose body went unrecovered after being killed during World War II has been accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
1st Lt. Richard W. Horrigan, 24, of Chester, was a pilot with the 22nd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force serving in Germany in April 1945. Piloting a P-47D Thunderbolt, he was part of an armed reconnaissance mission to the Alt Lonnewitz Airfield, but crashed while strafing enemy planes parked at the airfield.
The crash took place behind enemy lines, and in November 1945, after evidence became available he had not survived, a report of death was issued.
In March 2017, a DPAA investigation team returned to the site and located what they believed was Horrigan's aircraft, with an excavation beginning in 2019.
Horrigan’s remains were identified on Aug. 19, 2021.
He will be buried in his hometown at a later date.