An Army Air Force pilot has been identified nearly 80 years after he was shot down and killed in 1944 during World War II in Germany. One of the pilot’s nephews lives here on the Central Coast. KSBY caught up with John Keith Stocksdale of Pismo Beach to learn about his family’s journey to find Uncle Carl.

“Every time I talk about it, I get goosebumps,” said John Keith Stocksdale, a Vietnam Navy veteran who grew up in Lima, Ohio.

Stocksdale never had the opportunity to meet his uncle, First Lieutenant Carl D. Nesbitt.

“My uncle was in a B-17 over Germany and was shot down. It was my uncle Carl and his co-pilot. They fell and died,” Stocksdale said. “I have been working with the government trying to find out where he went. They sent me his entire military file, so I had it, but they didn’t know where he went.”

Five soldiers who were bombing an aircraft factory in Leipzig, Germany when it was hit by enemy fire survived, but Carl’s remains were never found. Much to his surprise, just last month John received a call from a writer for The Lima News.

“She said, ‘Did you have an uncle Carl?’ I said, “Yes, I am.” She said, ‘Well, they found his remains,'” Stocksdale recalled of his phone conversation with the writer.

After nearly eight decades of disappearance, Carl returned to American soil.

“I’m just thrilled. After so many years, we finally found his remains,” Stocksdale said.

The Prisoner of War Accounting Agency/MIA continues the search for those missing from past conflicts (more than 72,000 Americans remain missing in World War II alone). In 2019, the organization together with the help of History Flight, Inc., excavated the wreckage of Carl Nesbitt’s downed plane and found human remains. Stocksdale had already provided a DNA swab as a reference sample to the family, and in September 2022 they analyzed Stocksdale’s DNA from the remains found.

They met by chance. For never having met his uncle, Stocksdale says he feels a sense of closeness.

“Of course, of course. Because of the picture that was in my mother’s house all these years. And then it was at my house,” Stocksdale said of the picture of Carl sitting next to him on the couch.

Stocksdale is the son of the late John Donald, a World War II glider pilot, and one of his uncle Carl’s sisters, Charlene, better known as Pinky. Karla’s other sister, Marciel, now lives in Pennsylvania, where a memorial service will be held in May. Stocksdale tells KSBY he plans to attend.

“My mother’s sister, Marciel, will be 94 next month. That’s who these services are for,” Stocksdale said.

The first lieutenant will be honored for his supreme sacrifice spanning eight decades.

“I’ll have more chills than I do now,” Stocksdale said.

An American flag will be presented to Marciel along with a 21-gun salute in a ceremony scheduled for May 15 at a cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania.