A graveside service for 19-year-old Corporal Melvin Lloyd Huff of Eldora, formerly of Iowa Falls, will be Saturday at 1pm at the Union Cemetery in Iowa Falls. This past October, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that Huff was killed during World War 2.
In January of 1945, Huff was assigned to the 360th Service Group, Combat Replacement Training Center, Far East Air Force, and deployed in present day Papua, New Guinea. Huff’s unit attacked enemy defensive positions on nearby Cape Wom. Huff, an aerial gunner, was reported missing in action on January 20th, 1945, when friendly forces lost contact with the A-20G Havoc bomber he was aboard. In late 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Underwater Recovery Team conducted operations at a crash site, and recovered possible human remains, material evidence, and other life support equipment. To identify Huff’s remains, scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence.
