HASTINGS, Fla. — Lt. J.G. Ralph Cornelius Dupont, a U.S. Navy pilot missing since World War II, will be laid to rest with full military honors on Sunday at Pellicer Creek Cemetery in Hastings.
Dupont, who served in Fighter Squadron 18, was shot down over Formosa on Oct. 12, 1944, during a major strike against enemy forces.
His remains were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in June 2025, following extensive research and forensic analysis.
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Dupont joined the U.S. Navy from Florida and piloted an F6F-5 Hellcat during the mission over Formosa. The mission encountered heavy resistance, resulting in the loss of several aircraft, including Dupont’s.
After the war, Dupont was declared non-recoverable when searches failed to locate him. However, in 2023, Dupont’s next of kin provided research suggesting a link between Dupont and unidentified remains recovered in 1946 near Taien Airfield.
The remains, initially buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, were exhumed in April 2025 for forensic analysis by the DPAA.
This analysis confirmed the remains as those of Dupont.
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