NEW YORK — A bombardier lost over the Pacific during World War II has finally been laid to rest in Queens, six decades after his death.

Lt. Frank Giugliano was one of 11 U.S. airmen who vanished when their B-24J Liberator disappeared in bad weather after bombing enemy targets in New Guinea on April 16, 1944.

The bomber was last seen off the coast and was long presumed to have crashed into the ocean.

The remains weren't recovered until 2002, when a team of specialists from the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command checked out a tip from an island resident of who had come across the crash site.

Giugliano was buried in a flag-draped coffin at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens on Friday.

"He made us proud," a 72-year-old cousin, Joe Cosenza, told the New York Daily News. "I was too young to know him, but every time I spoke to my brother he just told me more and more about him. His is a story you couldn't make up. It's fantastic that he's home."

The storm that took Giugliano's aircraft caused the U.S. Army Air Forces some of its worst non-combat losses of the war.

More than 30 planes crashed in the unexpected front that blocked their return home, some when they got lost and ran low on fuel. Many of the lost fliers are still missing.

Researchers excavated the crash site and used DNA obtained from dental and bone samples to help identify the remains found with Giugliano.

The families of each missing airman were offered burials at Arlington National Cemetery. Three chose hometown burials, the Defense Department said.

The other airmen lost in the crash were Capt. Thomas C. Paschal of El Monte, Calif.; 2nd Lt. John A. Widsteen, of Palo Alto, Calif.; 1st Lt. James P. Gullion, of Paris, Texas; 2nd Lt. Leland A. Rehmet, of San Antonio, Texas; Staff Sgt. Richard F. King, of Moultrie, Ga.; Staff Sgt. William Lowery, of Republic, Pa.; Staff Sgt. Elgin J. Luckenbach, of Luckenbach, Texas; Staff Sgt. Marion B. May, of Amarillo, Texas; Sgt. Marshall P. Borofsky, of Chicago, and Sgt. Walker G. Harm, of Philadelphia.