Remains of soldier and airman killed during World War II identified

Pvt. of the American army. 1st Class Mose E. Vance, 21, of Bradshaw, W.Va., killed during World War II, was accounted for Jan. 5, 2024. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced last week that the remains of two World War II service members had been identified.

• Pvt. of the American army. 1st Class Mose E. Vance, 21, of Bradshaw, W.Va., killed during World War II, was found Jan. 5, 2024.

• U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. George E. Davies, 27, of Portland, Oregon, killed during World War II, was found September 9, 2022.

As of May 2023, more than 80,000 Americans remain missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts. Of the total, approximately 75% of the losses are located in the Indo-Pacific region, and more than 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea (like ship losses and known aircraft water losses).

Vance

In January 1945, Vance was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division in the European Theater during World War II.

Shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve 1944, German forces launched a major offensive in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace-Lorraine, France, known as Operation Northwind. The German attack swept through Allied defenses along the France-Germany border, and the battle enveloped two American corps along a 40-mile-wide front.

In the following weeks, Company F found itself assigned to a 7-mile sector in Reipertswiller and Wildenguth, France. PFC. Vance was killed on January 11 but due to the intensity of the fighting his body could not be found. With no record of Vance's capture by German forces and no remains found, the War Department issued a “death report” in December 1945.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) began searching for missing American personnel in the Reipertswiller area. Of the remains found, one was designated X-6904 Saint-Avold (X-6904) and buried in 1949 at the American Military Cemetery in Saint-Avold, France, known today as the Lorraine American Cemetery .

Employees of the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed X-6904 in August 2022 and transferred the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. DPAA scientists used anthropological and other circumstantial evidence. Additionally, Armed Forces Forensic Pathologist System scientists used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Vance's name is inscribed on the walls of the missing at the Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been found.

Vance will be buried in Paynesville, W.Va., on a date to be determined.

In the summer of 1943, Staff Sgt. George E. Davies was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

Davies

In the summer of 1943, Davies was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On August 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Davies was assistant engineer was hit by enemy antiaircraft fire and crashed during Operation Tidal Wave, the largest bombing mission against oil fields and refineries of Ploiesti, north of Ploiesti. Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified after the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as unknown in the Bolovan Civil and Military Cemetery, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

The AGRC exhumed all American remains from the cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknown individuals from the Bolovan Cemetery, and these remains were permanently interred at the Ardennes American Cemetery and the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.

In 2017, the DPAA began exhuming unknown individuals believed to be associated with the missing airmen from Operation Tidal Wave.

DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analyses, as well as comparisons of chest X-rays and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, Armed Forces Medical Examiner System scientists used Y chromosome DNA analysis (Y-STR).

Davies' name is recorded on the tablets of the missing at the Florence American Cemetery, a site of the American Battle Monuments Commission in Impruneta, Italy. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been found.

Davies will be buried in Portland, Oregon on June 21, 2024.