Aviation radioman killed during World War II in South Pacific to be buried in Clearwater Saturday
The Navy Office of Community Outreach (NAVCO) has announced that New Haven, Connecticut, native Robert Cyr Jr., who died on an anti-submarine mission in the South Pacific during World War II, will be buried with full military honors in Clearwater, Florida, this Saturday, May 2.
The burial will take place at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park, 2860 Sunset Point Road. For a time, contact Sylvan Abbey at (727) 796-1992.
The Flag Officer will be Rear Adm. Peter Muschinske, Deputy Chief of Chaplains for Reserve Matters.
Cyr was an Aviation Radioman 2nd Class serving on a PBY-5 Catalina that crashed Jan. 22, 1944, off Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. While some of the crew were rescued when the PBY-5 crashed, Cyr and others perished and went down with the aircraft, and later declared “non-recoverable” by the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, according to records provided by NAVCO.
With advancements being made in recovery and identification technologies, the report states, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dispatched a partner investigation team in 2022. The investigation discovered the PBY-5 wreckage and the site was excavated with possible human remains recovered.
According to the report, based on DNA information, Cyr was officially accounted for on Nov. 5, 2025.
A biography for Cyr and records from the PBY-5’s crash are attached.