NOVEMBER 17, 2025 – A Lyons resident who died in World War II was laid to rest with full honors by seven Soldiers of the New York Army National Guard at the town’s Old Elmwood Cemetery on Nov. 7.
The Honor Guard provided military funeral honors for Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. John A. Pagliuso, who died October 5, 1942, during a bombing mission over Papua New Guinea.
He was listed as missing until his remains were identified in March of this year.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Kovach, an Army Reservist from Rochester, N.Y., presented the colors from Pagliuso’s casket to his niece, Norma Jo Davis, now 79, of Canandaigua, N.Y.
“It’s closure for our family who never knew what happened to John. It’s wonderful,” Davis said of the ceremony.
The ceremony, intended for the family, expanded to a much wider celebration of Pagliuso’s service for Lyons and the Central New York veterans community.
“I received calls from all sorts of different veterans’ organizations to participate and attend. So yeah, this is bigger than I ever thought,” Davis said.
The New York Army National Guard military forces honor guard supports ceremonies like this in support of returning remains from the Vietnam War, Korean War and World War II.
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Gosse, one of the honor guard members, said the ceremonies have unique impacts for the Honor Guard team.
“I’ve done a couple of these services now, and I think each one is special just because of the time that has passed, and we can finally lay them to rest in the way that they deserve,” Gosse said.
“And it just shows how willing we are to give some type of closure to the families and to that veteran who gave that ultimate sacrifice. With these services, it means just a little bit more, because they can finally get their welcome home, and finally get some type of peace,” he added.
Staff Sergeant John A. Pagliuso was born to Italian immigrants in 1918, growing up in the village of Lyons, New York. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at Mitchel Field, Hempstead, New York, October 3, 1939.
He trained as an aerial photographer and joined the 405th Bombardment Squadron, 38th Bombardment Group, and served in the Southwest Pacific Theater during World War II.
On October 5, 1942, the B-25D Mitchell medium bomber he was onboard did not return from a mission over the Territory of Papua (now Papua New Guinea).
Research of the incident from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency provided the family with details they had never known, Davis explained.
“He died before I was even born, so I never knew him,” she said. “All we knew from my mom is that his plane had gone down near Papua New Guinea. Now we have this report that gives us such explicit detail.”
Part of a flight of two, the bombers patrolled the coastal area near Buna until they made visual contact with one large enemy transport escorted by two Japanese destroyers.
They radioed the position of the convoy and immediately engaged the enemy force.
Six Japanese fighter aircraft proceeded to pounce on the twin-engine bomber, and Pagliuso’s B-25D was last observed in a steep dive with six Zeros on their tail.
The second aircraft successfully broke contact and safely returned to base, where the squadron scrambled six more B-25s, but those crews encountered opposition from enemy fighter pilots and were forced to jettison their bombs and return to base.
Officials reported Pagliuso and the five other crew members missing.
Search efforts located the aircraft crash site in 1944 and recovered only one set of remains for the six crewmembers, which were unidentified, later interred as Unknown X-133 at the cemetery established at Fort McKinley, Manila, known as the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial since 1960.
A final search in northern Papua took place from July through December 1948. A team of U.S. officers, enlisted men, and local guides, interpreters, and laborers questioned hundreds of local officials and residents but collected no additional evidence related to the crew of Pagliuso’s B-25D.
Pagliuso was memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Republic of the Philippines. His name will now receive a rosetta stone to mark his remains as identified.
His wife, Lucile Pagliuso, then residing in Jackson, Mississippi, during the war, received the notice from the War Department December 13, 1945 changing his status from missing to dead.
“What amazed me so much is the detail in this final report,” Davis said. “After all these years, they remain so diligent in researching the events leading up to his loss. It really gives me goosebumps.”
While the New York National Guard military funeral honors team supports the services of more than 850 veterans each month, the return of former MIA service members is a special event, explained Sgt. 1st Class Michael Lebron, the casualty assistance officer for the family.
“I feel honored and a sense of brotherhood being able to represent the New York Army National Guard and all the service members who are unable to attend such a special return home,” Lebron said.
Lebron is also an aircrew member, serving as Flight Platoon Sergeant assigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 126th General Support Aviation Battalion in Rochester, where he flies with the CH-47 Chinook detachment.
“Being a flight crew member myself, I always feel proud and victorious when I’m able to contribute to getting one of our brothers-in-arms back home,” he said.
In 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recommended the disinterment of these Unknown remains with a list of possible candidates for association; those candidates included Pagliuso, one of the aircraft crew members. The remains were exhumed in December 2022 and escorted to the DPAA Laboratory in Hawaii for analysis.
His remains were confirmed through a DNA match with Pagliuso’s maternal niece and sister on March 17, 2025.
Reviewing all the details of the recovery of remains and the efforts to identify Pagliuso astonished Davis and the family, she said.
“It simply amazes me that the DNA from my aunt, given over 12 years ago, could be matched to those bones,” Davis said.
Now living a half hour away from the family hometown, Davis says her knowledge of Pagliuso’s life and service brings satisfaction and closure to the remaining family.
“He was an Eagle Scout who planted 100 trees in Lyons before the war,” Davis said. “We think about that every time we are in town. We’re so very proud of him.”
The lack of remains made closure for the family difficult, Davis said.
“The family never gave up hope, even though, as time went on, that hope diminished,” she said. “Our grandparents were approached about naming the VFW here in Lyons after him, and they refused, because they would have had to admit that he would never return.”
But Pagliuso did return.
Pagliuso was laid to rest adjacent to his parents’ plot at Old Elmwood Cemetery.
“The cemetery plot was donated so that he will now lay right with my grandparents,” Davis explained. “It’s such an honor to have him home.”
By Richard Goldenberg