Lt. j.g. Ralph Cornelius Dupont, whose remains were uncovered in June, will receive a burial with full military honors. He served in Fighter Squadron 18 (VF-18).
HASTINGS, Fla — After being identified earlier this year, Lt. j.g. Ralph Cornelius Dupont, a U.S. Navy pilot from World War II, is set to be buried with full military honors this Sunday in Hastings, stated the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
Dupont, who joined the Navy in Florida, served in Fighter Squadron 18 (VF-18) during WWII, SJSO said.
On October 12, 1944, Dupont was piloting an F6F-5 Hellcat during a significant offensive against Formosa, now known as Taiwan. The carrier’s aircraft encountered multiple enemy fighters over the target area, resulting in the downing of three F65 aircraft, according to SJSO.
During post-war searches, SJSO said Dupont was not accounted for, as he was eventually declared “non-recoverable.”
In 2023, Dupont’s family collaborated with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), convinced there was a link between Dupont and an unidentified set of remains found three miles from Taien Airfield in Taiwan in 1946.
SJSO said the remains had been buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
“After further examination, DPAA exhumed these remains from the Punchbowl on April 6, 2025, and sent them to the DPAA Laboratory for forensic testing,” SJSO told First Coast News.
On June 10, 2025, through laboratory analysis and “total circumstantial evidence,” SJSO said DPAA confirmed the remains to be Dupont’s.
He is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, DPAA said on its website.
Dupont’s funeral will be held at Pellicer Creek Cemetery at 2 p.m. Sunday, exactly 81 years after his death in combat.
