CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Tuskegee Airman from Charlotte who went missing while on a mission during World War II in Germany has been identified, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced.
Second Lt. Fred Brewer Jr. was 23 years old when he was last seen. Brewer was a pilot with the 100th Fighter Squadron in the European theater. He was among 57 fighter pilots assigned to escort bombers to their targets in Regensburg, Germany, from Ramitelli Air Base in Italy on Oct. 19, 1944. According to another pilot's testimony, Brewer attempted a steep climb to get above cloud cover. This maneuver stalled the engine of his P-51C Mustang, leading to a crash landing. The pilot observed that Brewer's cockpit canopy was jettisoned but he wasn't seen ejecting and Brewer was declared missing in action.
In 2011, researchers found that an Italian resident used airplane wreckage from a crash site to create a memorial to fallen Americans killed during WWII. Around that same time, they analyzed the file for unidentified remains that were recovered from a civilian cemetery in Moggio Udinese in 1946.
The remains were sent to a lab in 2022 for further analysis and identification. Scientists were able to use anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence to determine the remains were those of Brewer, giving his family closure 79 years after he disappeared.
Brewer first reported for duty at Selfridge Field in Michigan in early 1944, according to his service record. He was assigned to the 553rd Fighter Squadron after enlisting on Nov. 23, 1942. He was appointed an aviation cadet and received his training at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. Brewer's service record shows that he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Maryland, as well as Keesler Field in Mississippi during his career.
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