Airman's son appreciates closure.

Byline: Jacqueline Reis

WORCESTER - Kenneth Belisle of Florida never knew his biological father, Second Lt. Kenneth L. Cassidy, co-pilot of a World War II bomber, but he understands why the return of the remains of his father and his crewmates, missing since 1943, means so much to people.

"People like to see closure, even if it's not their particular relatives," said Mr. Belisle, a retired Navy two-star Rear Admiral. "I think that's really important. ... All of the people I've talked to and who are involved in that process are really committed."

The Department of Defense announced Friday that the remains of the 11 crewmen of the Swan, a B-24D Liberator bomber, were coming home. The plane disappeared on Dec. 3, 1943, while on a reconnaissance mission over the Bismarck Sea off Papua New Guinea.

Mr. Belisle, 63, a Worcester native living in Jacksonville, Fla., was born after his father's plane vanished. "I never thought we would ever see anything, because even the military told my mother that they thought they went down over water," he said. Three or four planes searched for 18 hours, he said.

The rescuers were in the wrong place. In 2000, Papua New Guinean hunters found the plane in the jungle. They couldn't relocate it when a Department of Defense team visited in 2002, but it was rediscovered in 2004. The "triple canopy jungle" kept the site hidden, but it also protected some of the remains, Mr. Belisle said.

The military positively identified his father's remains using a DNA sample from Mr. Cassidy's brother, Robert, formerly of Culpeper, Va. Robert Cassidy has since died, as have his other siblings, according to Robert Cassidy's widow.

Mr. Belisle's mother, Jeanne, remarried after several years. Mr. Belisle's stepfather, Maurice Belisle of Fort Myers, Fla., is a retired Army colonel who served in World War II and has relatives in Worcester.

"I have a great deal of respect for what my biological father did ... but my stepfather did the same thing, so he's a hero, too, to me," Mr. Belisle said. "Between the two of them, they guided my life."

Mr. Belisle does not know whether his father will be buried as part of a group ceremony or individually, and the location is still being worked out.

Contact Jacqueline Reis at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: A portrait of Second Lt. Kenneth L. Cassidy, whose bomber disappeared over the Bismarck Sea off Papua New Guinea in December 1943.

PHOTOG: PHOTO COURTESY OF KENNETH BELISLE