Staff Sgt. Berthold A. Chastain, U.S. Army Air Corp., was aboard a B-24D Liberator bomber with 11 other crew members when it went missing during an air reconnaissance mission Oct. 27, 1943. Chastain, 27, was the tail gunner aboard the “Shack Rat” when it crashed during a reconnaissance flight in New Guinea.

A funeral service will be conducted at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel of Ralph Buckner Funeral Home with Pastor Dale Tennell officiating. The conclusion of the funeral service will be marked at 1:40 p.m. with a low altitude flyover of a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber. The aircraft is scheduled to fly above the funeral home and part of Cleveland at an altitude of 2,000 feet. Interment will be held at the McInturff Cemetery with military honors.

On Saturday, the funeral home will carry Chastain’s remains from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Cleveland escorted by law enforcement agencies and motorcyclists.

Patriot Guard Rider George Burgan said local riders will begin staging at 9:15 a.m. in Varnell, Ga., at 3901 Cleveland Highway. The hearse will travel along Cleveland Highway/Dalton Pike and is expected to arrive at Ralph Buckner Funeral Home at about 10 a.m.

Burgan said Tuesday he expects 50 riders and the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office to participate. Thursday, the numbers were closer to 150 riders and 17 law enforcement agencies from everywhere between Atlanta and Cleveland, including units of the Georgia and Tennessee highway patrols.

Chastain’s long journey home was documented in a Lifestyles story written by William Wright and published Nov. 10, 2010, based on an interview with Chastain’s daughter, Tulie Chastain Swilling, of Birchwood.

Immediately after the aircraft was reported missing, U.S. Army Air Force personnel conducted multiple searches but failed to locate either the crew or the aircraft.

On Oct. 28, 1944, the entire crew was officially declared dead.

Chastain was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart which was presented to his family. Years later, President Lyndon Johnson issued his daughter Tulie and his mother, Estella Mae Chastain, presidential citations for bravery for Chastain’s ultimate sacrifice.

The American Battle Monuments Commission memorialized the 12 crewmen by including their names on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

On Aug. 9, 2003, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Investigation Team operating in Papua, New Guinea, received information from a local resident regarding a possible aircraft wreckage site.

In March 2004, a team of investigators returned and attempted to locate the site. Interviewing witnesses, it was discovered one of them possessed a note with information from one of the missing crew’s identification tags.

The team was able to fly over the crash site in a helicopter and take aerial photographs but poor weather conditions, an inadequate landing zone, language barriers and other problems prevented an up-close inspection and in-depth interviews.

On Jan. 21, 2005, however, another team successfully surveyed the crash site, recovering personal effects, life support items and other evidence identifying the crew. It was reported that the crash site was located on a “very steep and dangerous mountain slope.”

From Jan. 23, 2007, through March 8 of that year, a recovery team conducted an excavation of the site and escorted the evidence to a central identification laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii for analysis. Chastain’s remains were also recovered and positively identified through DNA testing.

Sgt. Chastain was born Feb. 3, 1916, in Whitfield County, Ga., He was a member of the Harmony Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia.