*A Tuskegee Airman who went missing in action nearly 80 years ago has finally been laid to rest in North Carolina.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Second Lieutenant Fred L. Brewer Jr. disappeared while returning to Ramitelli Air Field in Italy in October 1944. Brewer joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from North Carolina and was a Tuskegee Airman and member of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group. 

He was one of 57 fighters on a mission “over enemy targets in Regensburg, Germany” when he vanished in 1944. Several pilots reported seeing Brewer “attempting to climb his aircraft out of the cloud cover” before he “stalled out and fell into a spin,” the DPPA said.

Fred was 23 years old when he disappeared.

U.S. personnel recovered his remains from a civilian cemetery in Italy after the war. The body was exhumed in June 2022, and extensive tests and DNA analysis helped identify the remains as Brewer in August 2023. The remains were identified thanks to the DNA of Clement Brewer, Fred’s second cousin,

Second Lieutenant Fred L. Brewer Jr. had been missing for almost 80 years, ever since an Oct. 19, 1944, mission in Italy where he served as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of African-American military pilots and airmen who served during World War II. https://t.co/zy8eddyBuL pic.twitter.com/EgvoTg1Nrf

— ABC News (@ABC) December 8, 2023

Fred was recently buried during a military service at the Salisbury National Cemetery in Charlotte, according to ABC News and WSOC-TV.

“He has had three other burials. Today will be his fourth, but the only one in America,” said family member Brenda Brewer, per WNCN Raleigh.

Several veterans attended what Brenda called Fred’s final funeral service last week.

“We honored him the way he should’ve been honored today for what he did. And that’s what’s important,” said Greg Gentry, an airman and member of the CVMA Chapter. “He will always be here where people can come pay tribute for his sacrifice.”

READ MORE: HISTORY Channel Announces New ‘Tuskegee Airmen’ Documentary from Robin Roberts

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