Joe Biden has suggested his war hero uncle could have met a grisly end among cannibalistic savages after being shot dead in Papua New Guinea during World War II.
The president said there were “a lot of cannibals back then” in the area where his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan’s plane was shot down in the 1940s — and his remains were never found .
Biden made the comments during a trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he visited a war memorial named after his heroic relative, known to family as “Uncle Bosie.”
The president said: “(He) was shot in an area where there were a lot of cannibals at the time. They never found his body.
“But the government came back when I was there and they checked and found parts of the plane and stuff.”
President Joe Biden reaches for the name of his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan, Jr., on a wall at a Scranton war memorial, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His uncle died in World War II
There is no image of Joe Biden’s uncle being shot. This photograph shows a Douglas A-20 Havoc medium attack bomber shot down by anti-aircraft fire during an attack on the Imperial Japanese seaplane base and port facilities at Sekar Bay on July 22, 1944 at Kokas, New Zealand. Dutch Guinea, in the Dutch East Indies. .
The local population looks at the wounded Americans. and Australian soldiers placed on a row of stretchers. Papua New Guinea, December 1942
Biden went on to recount how “Uncle Bosie” – whom he called “one hell of a guy” – ended up in the jungle populated by cannibalistic savages.
He said: “When D-Day came, the next day my mother’s four 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 was shot. He was in the Army Air Corps, before there was an Air Force, he flew these single engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea.
“He volunteered because someone couldn’t come.”
This led to him being shot among the cannibals.
In a speech Wednesday, Biden added: “My uncle Bosie, he was quite an athlete, I’m told, when he was a kid.
“And it became an Army Air Corps before the Air Force came along. He flew these single-engine planes in reconnaissance over war zones.
“And he was shot down near Guinea and they never found the body because there were, there really were a lot of cannibals, in that part of New Guinea.”
The loss of Ambrose Finnegan is detailed in a “missing planes” report written on March 17, 1944 and held in the National Archives.
Marked “Secret,” the War Department report shows that he was not piloting the plane and was a passenger.
There were three “crew members” and one “passenger” on board.
Finnegan was listed as a second lieutenant who was a “courier.”
The three-person crew consisted of a pilot, a gunner and an engineer.
The pilot was 1st Lt. Harold R. Prince.
According to the report, the weather was “good” when the plane crashed and there was “no” evidence to suggest that those on board had survived or not.
Missing Aircrew Report Number 48472D LT AMBROSE J. FINNEGAN
Missing Aircrew Report Number 48472D LT AMBROSE J. FINNEGAN
Missing Aircrew Report Number 48472D LT AMBROSE J. FINNEGAN
There were also reports in the National Archives submitted by pilots who searched for the missing plane.
They reported that they “searched the water all the way through without any observations” and that “no observations were made.”
The pilots reported that “no trace was found of Lieutenant Prince’s plane or the crew.”
President Joe Biden and Pennsylvania Mayor Paige Cognetti visit the Veterans War Memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
President Joe Biden visits Zummo’s Cafe with Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Mayor Paige Cognetti
Speaking in Scranton, Biden continued: “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 was doing (at the memorial).
“My Uncle Ambrose Finnegan – Uncle Bosie was a hell of a guy. I have never met him.
Biden said that as he looked at the memorial, he thought of his Republican presidential rival, Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden reaches for the name of his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan, Jr., on a wall of a Scranton war memorial, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Scranton, Pa.
U.S. President Joe Biden visits a war memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, April 17, 2024.
“What was I thinking when I was there, when Trump refused to go up to the memorial in Paris and he said they were a bunch of assholes and losers,” he said.
“To me, that’s such a disqualifying statement made by a president. The guys who saved civilization in the 1940s, idiots and losers.
Trump has strongly denied making such comments about American soldiers who died in World War II.
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