Lt. Ewart Sconiers WWII POW/MIA Recovery Project

In August of 2015, OVAI was contracted under DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) to conduct geophysical survey and excavate two 3×8 meter trenches (ca. two dozen graves) in Allies Park, Lubin, Poland in search of 1^st Lt. Ewart Sconiers.  Lt. Sconiers was a WWII bombardier on the Johnny Reb Jr. B-17 Flying Fortress. After his plane crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of France and the crew was taken prisoner by the Germans, he eventually ended up in the Stalag Luft III POW camp in present day Zagan, Poland.  An injury in camp led to his transport to a municipal hospital in what is now Lubin, Poland, where he died and was buried in the local municipal cemetery. Our work in Allies Park, formerly the municipal cemetery, led to the discovery that Lt. Sconiers’ remains had been moved to a French Military cemetery in Gdansk, Poland in the 1950s. In 2016/17, his remains were recovered from the cemetery and positively identified by DPAA through DNA analysis. His homecoming occurred in January 2018 when he was finally laid to rest in Defuniak Springs, FL.  To learn more about Lt. Ewart Sconiers, please visit www.bringsconiershome.com.