Rite set for B-24 crew member

A service with full military honors was July 17 at 1 p.m. at Coeur d'Alene Memorial Gardens for Sgt. Charles Daman, a member of a B-24 bomber crew who was identified last year after excavation of the bomber crash site in Germany. Sgt. Daman was one of 10 crew members of the B-24 when it was shot down by a German Messerschmitt 262. The airplane crashed on the Ludwigslust Castle grounds east of Hamburg on April 4, 1945.

Arrangements for Sgt. Daman’s service have been made by Kramer Funeral Home at Palouse. They have been working with Wilber Tanner of Moscow, the oldest surviving nephew of the air crew member. Tanner was advised last September that the remains of his uncle had been identified. He said for years family members believed the bomber had gone down in the ocean.

Tanner said his late aunt, Maxine Mumau, a former long-time resident of Tensed who later moved to Spokane, submitted a DNA sample, and the POW-MIA Account Agency, based in the Pentagon, was able to match her DNA with DNA taken from a bone fragment excavated from the crash site.

The agency also was able to match DNA of the pilot of the airplane. Eight other crew members have not been identified.

One crew member survived the crash and was taken prisoner.

Tanner noted excavation of the B-24 site for years was impossible because Ludwigslust is in East Germany.

Sgt. Damon was born Sept. 25, 1923, in Hamill, S.D. and moved with his family to Desmet, Idaho, in 1934. He was a member of the 1941 class of Plummer High School and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in March of 1943.

Tanner said Sgt. Daman and his mother were among 10 children born to Frank and Lillian Daman. Tanner's family didn't move west until 1946, and he never knew his uncle.

The Air Medal, three oak leaf clusters, and a Purple Heart will be awarded posthumously.

The B-24 bomber, call Red Bow, was shot down a month before May 8, 1945, the day the war in Europe officially ended.