1st Lt Frank P Giugliano (42-100225)

Details about those listed as missing or killed in the Pacific, including current search operations.

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Leondus
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1st Lt Frank P Giugliano (42-100225)

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Originally published on May 20, 2006
BY ADAM NICHOLS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
WWII hero home at last
Airman lost in jungle 60 yrs. is laid to rest

The remains of WWII airman Lt. Frank Giugliano, who disappeared in Southeast Asia on April 16, 1944, were laid to rest yesterday in Queens.

It took 1st Lt. Frank Giugliano 62 years to make it back to Queens, but yesterday he got a hero's homecoming.
The New York bombardier had laid in the shattered wreckage of his plane since 1944, slumped next to his 10 crew members deep in the sweltering South Pacific jungle.

Yesterday, he returned to rest nestled between the graves of his parents in St John's Cemetery in Middle Village.

With his coffin covered by the Stars and Stripes and saluted by an honor guard, his final journey was watched by dozens of relatives who never forgot him.

"He made us proud," said Joe Cosenza, 72, a cousin who grew up in Giugliano's Ozone Park neighborhood.

"I was too young to know him, but every time I spoke to my brother he just told me more and more about him. His is a story you couldn't make up. It's fantastic that he's home."

Giugliano died on April 16, 1944, as his World War II bomber made its way back to its base at Nadzab, New Guinea, after pounding Japanese airfields in Hollandia - now Jayapura - in Indonesia.

Armed with inaccurate maps of the mountainous, jungle area, the plane, dubbed Royal Flush, hit bad weather - and disappeared.

For nearly 60 years, no sign of the Royal Flush was found. But Giugliano's cousin, Saverio Giugliano, 82, never gave up hope. A campaign of letter writing finally ended four years ago.

"I got a call from a contact who said I think we've found your cousin," he told the Daily News last month. "I cried like a baby."

Saverio recently suffered a minor stroke and missed yesterday's funeral service, held in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary where Giugliano had been baptized.

"Finding him after all this time was a little too much," said Susan Defeo, 59, a cousin.

"He was on this trail his whole life, and finally it came to fruition. It's an incredible thing, 60 years on a plane waiting to be discovered."

The flag that draped his cousin's coffin was to be presented to Saverio in honor of his efforts to bring him home, said Cosenza.

"There is no statute of limitations on patriotism," said Msgr. Robert Thelen at the memorial service. "It is 60 years later, but here we are, packed into this church."

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