Mississippi soldier, missing in action in 1942, finally ID’d

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A south Mississippi family has finally found answers to an eight-decade mystery. The fate of Private Andrew Ladner, a soldier from Harrison County, has been unknown since he disappeared during World War II, during the Battle of Buna-Gona. This month, the U.S. government announced that Ladner’s remains had been identified. The Sun Herald reports that the notification came from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. In November 1942, Ladner was posted in the southeastern mountain jungles of what was then the Australian territory of New Guinea, fighting Japanese troops for control of the port of Buna. Ladner was killed in action. Ladner was a native of Lizana, Mississippi, and 30 years old at the time of his death.