The following narrative is compiled from several government sources:

First Lieutenant Joseph Dale O’Meara was a B-24 navigator,
in the 8th Air Force, the 376th Bomb Group, and the 515th bomb Squadron on the Major John Toomey Crew. The plane was temporarily assigned to the 9th Air Force in Benghazi, Libia.

His B-24D Liberator Bomber, “Malicious”, left on a mission to Messina, Sicily on January 31, 1943. The plane encountered intense anti-aircraft fire when entering the bomb run, taking out both port-side engines, but delivered its bombs on the target. On the way back to base, the crippled ship was attacked by seven enemy fighters and fought them off until it had only one engine left. They were compelled to execute a crash landing on the sea about forty-five miles off shore. The tail section of the plane remained afloat for about ten minutes, while rafts and rations were dropped by accompanying planes. Four men were observed boarding two life rafts. When the rescue boat and another plane arrived a few hours later, no trace could be found of the survivors.

All were reported missing in action. None of the names appeared on any prisoner-of-war lists. The joint Army-Navy release dated 26 May 1946 after hostilities had ceased, declared that all surviving missing personnel, with few exceptions