Scientists have identified the remains of a 29-year-old Army private listed as missing in action since fighting near Hurtgen, Germany during World War II in 1944.
Pvt. Myron E. Williams, of Dixon, Illinois, served in Company L, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division at the time of his death, according to a recent release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
The agency accounted for Williams’ remains on July 13, 2022. Agency officials released information about his case on March 20.
“His body unable to be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war,” according to the release. “The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death for Williams on Nov. 17, 1945.”
An agency historian determined that one set of unidentified remains from the battle site, designated X-5432 Neuville, and recovered Germeter and Hürtgen possibly belonged to Williams.
Those remains had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium in 1949. Workers disinterred the remains in April 2019 and sent them to the agency laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Williams’ name is listed on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, another commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, according to the release. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Williams will be buried in Killeen, Texas. A date has not yet been set.
