Joe Biden has suggested that his war hero uncle may have met a gruesome end among cannibal savages after being shot down over Papua New Guinea in World War II.
The president said there were “a lot of cannibals at the time” in the area where his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan’s plane was shot down in the 1940s — and that his remains have never been found.
Biden made the comments during a trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he visited a war memorial bearing the name of his heroic relative, who was known to the family as “Uncle Bosie.”
The president said: ‘(He) was shot in an area where there were many cannibals at the time. They never found his body.
“But the government went back while I was there and they checked and found parts of the plane and things like that.”
President Joe Biden reaches out to name his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan, Jr. to touch, on a wall at a war memorial in Scranton, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His uncle died in World War II
There is no footage of Joe Biden’s uncle being shot. This photo shows a Douglas A-20 Havoc medium bomber being shot down by anti-aircraft fire during an attack on the Imperial Japanese seaplane base and port installations at Sekar Bay on 22 July 1944 at Kokas in Dutch New Guinea, Dutch East Indies.
US President Joe Biden visits a war memorial bearing the name of his uncle who died in World War II, Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr., in Scranton, Pennsylvania, US, April 17, 2024
Biden went on to talk about how “Uncle Bosie” – who he called a “whole guy” – ended up in the jungle populated by cannibalistic savages.
He said: “When D-Day happened the next day, all four of my mother’s brothers volunteered to join the army. Three of them made it, one of them couldn’t go.
“Ambrose Finnegan – we called him Uncle Bosie – he got shot. He was in the Army Air Corps, before there was an air force, and flew those single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea.
“He volunteered because someone couldn’t make it.”
That led to him being shot among the cannibals.
In a speech later on Wednesday, Biden added: “My uncle Bosie, he was a great athlete, they tell me, when he was a kid.
“And he became an Army Air Corps before the Air Force came along. He flew those single-engine aircraft as reconnaissance over war zones.
“And he was shot near Guinea and they never found the body because there really were a lot of cannibals in that part of New Guinea.”
The loss of Ambrose Finnegan is detailed in a ‘missing aircraft’ report prepared on March 17, 1944 and held in the National Archives.
The War Department report, which is marked ‘secret’, shows that he did not fly the plane and was a passenger.
There were three ‘crew’ and one ‘passenger’ on board.
Finnegan was listed as a 2nd Lieutenant who was a ‘courier’.
The three-man crew consisted of a pilot, gunner and engineer.
The report said the weather was “good” when the plane crashed and there was “zero” evidence as to whether or not the occupants had survived.
President Joe Biden visits the war memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania, with Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, right, Wednesday, April 17, 2024
S-President Joe Biden visits the Veterans War Memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania with Pennsylvania Mayor Paige Cognetti
President Joe Biden visits Zummo’s Cafe with Scranton, Pennsylvania, Mayor Paige Cognetti
Biden continued in Scranton: “We had a tradition in my family that my grandfather taught us.
‘When you visit the grave of a family member you say three Hail Marys. That’s what I did (at the memorial).
“My Uncle Ambrose Finnegan – Uncle Bosie was a great guy. I never met him.’
Biden said as he looked at the monument he thought about his Republican rival for president, Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden reaches for his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan, Jr.’s name on a wall at a war memorial in Scranton, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Scranton, Pennsylvania
US President Joe Biden visits a war memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania, US, April 17, 2024
“What I was thinking about as I stood there, when Trump refused to go to the monument in Paris and he said they were a bunch of losers and losers,” he said.
“To me, that’s such a disqualifying statement from a president. The guys who saved civilization in the 1940s are suckers and losers.”
Trump has strongly denied making such comments about American soldiers killed in World War II.