U.S. President Joe Biden sparked astonishment when he hinted that cannibals on New Guinea might have consumed his uncle's body after his military plane was shot down during World War II. However, what actually occurred, according to the White House and official records, differs significantly from Biden's account. The U.S. presidency stated on Thursday that Biden's story suffers, like many family myths, from some exaggeration and embellishment.
During a campaign stop in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Biden paused at a memorial for World War II casualties, where he praised his uncle, Second Lieutenant Ambrose J. Finnegan. The 81-year-old president, who was just one year old when his uncle died in 1944, approached the memorial and touched his uncle's name etched among a long list of names.
Later, Biden told a crowd of steelworkers in Pittsburgh, "His (plane) was shot down in New Guinea, and they never found his body because there were a lot of cannibals in that part of New Guinea, really." He did not hesitate to repeat the same story to reporters, asserting that his uncle's plane "was shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea," noting that the U.S. government recovered parts of the downed plane.
However, the narrative Biden recounted lacks many documented facts in U.S. Department of Defense records regarding the cause of the plane's crash, its location, or even the cannibal story itself. According to the official website charged with caring for American prisoners of war and missing persons, Biden's uncle was en route to New Guinea on a military plane tasked with delivering mail and was "forced to land in the ocean" off the island's coast "for unknown reasons."
The agency added that the plane crashed violently into the water, claiming that three crew members were unable to escape from the wreck while only one survived, rescued by a passing ship. The agency stated, "The aerial search the following day found no trace of the missing plane or the missing crew members."
In response to the controversy raised by Biden's fanciful narrative, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged that the president’s uncle "lost his life when the military aircraft he was on crashed into the Pacific Ocean," not on land as the president claimed. However, the spokesperson defended the president, stating that he "highlighted his uncle's story" to show support for veterans.
