Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995                   TAG: 9501190019
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

50 YEARS LATER, WAR ENDS FOR FATHER SHE HARDLY KNEW

On Wednesday, Sue Ann Reisdorph watched as Lt. Col. Don Weiss and three of his crewmen came home.

Reisdorph, who was six months old when her father's B-26 was shot down over France in World War II, held a folded flag as Army gunners saluted a single casket at Arlington Memorial Cemetery.

The casket held the combined remains of Weiss, co-pilot Axel ``Pete'' Slustrop, bombardier David Meserow and navigator George Hazlett.

``The best part of it for me was we were able to complete things, to give closure in such a dignified way,'' Reisdorph said after the simple burial service.

She traveled from her home in Spring Hill, Fla., for the service, joining more than 40 relatives of the four men who came from New York, Maine, Iowa, Massachusetts, Oregon and Illinois.

``It's another chapter, the last chapter,'' Reisdorph said.

Reisdorph's mother remarried, and Reisdorph grew up knowing few details of her father's life or death. Several years ago, she began looking for answers, eventually traveling to see her father's name inscribed on a memorial in Normandy, France, and contacting some of his wartime friends.

``That was very powerful and wonderful, and now we have come full circle,'' she said.

Weiss, of Denison, Iowa, was 29 when plane was shot down over Caen, France, on June 22, 1944.

``The plane was hit in mid-fuselage and broke apart,'' said Doug Howard, who researched the crash for the Army Personnel Command.

In 1986, bone fragments and telltale bits of ammunition turned up in a pasture near Caen. Army experts called in found bits of leather flight jackets, several shoes, the dial of an altimeter, and a ripped name tag.

It took eight years to completely identify the four fliers. All had been in the nose of the twin-engine plane. Another crewman was found shortly after the crash, and remains of three others on the plane were never found.

In November, startled family members learned that Weiss, Meserow, Hazlett and Slustrop were no longer missing in action. The Pentagon counts about 79,000 Americans still missing from World War II.

The crew would be old men now, like many of those who stood in bright, cold sunshine Wednesday to bury them. A few were there that day 50 years ago, including flight commander Bob Perkins, who was flying the next plane behind Weiss in a six-plane formation. He watched as Weiss' bomber disintegrated in a burst of flak.

Warwick Clark smoothed his gray hair in the chill wind and saluted after six horses drew the caisson toward the hillside gravesite.

Earlier, the retired Air Force officer thumbed through memorabilia of the 386th Bombardier Group during a brief memorial service earlier Wednesday.

Clark said his bunk was close to Slustrop's at the bomber group's home base in England.

``I had loaned him a pair of my pants, and I think he was wearing them that day,'' Clark said. ``I have always wondered about what happened to that crew.''