RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — Navy scientists have recognized the stays of an Indiana soldier who died in World Battle II when the tank he was commanding was struck by an anti-tank spherical throughout a battle in Germany.
The Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company announced Wednesday that the stays of U.S. Military 2nd Lt. Gene F. Walker of Richmond, Indiana, had been recognized in July, almost 79 years after his loss of life.
Walker was 27 and commanded an M4 Sherman tank in November 1944 when his unit battled German forces close to Hücheln, Germany, and his tank was struck by an anti-tank spherical.
The tank’s different crew members survived, however Walker was killed they usually had been unable to take away his physique from the tank resulting from heavy combating. The Battle Division issued a presumptive discovering of loss of life in April 1945 for Walker, DPAA mentioned.
His stays had been recognized after a DPAA historian decided that one set of unidentified stays recovered in December 1944 from a burned-out tank in Hücheln probably belonged to Walker.
These stays had been exhumed from the Henri-Chapelle U.S. Navy Cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium, in August 2021 and despatched to the DPAA laboratory for evaluation. Walker’s stays had been recognized primarily based on anthropological evaluation, circumstantial proof and an evaluation of mitochondrial DNA.
His stays will probably be buried in San Diego, California, in early 2024. DPAA mentioned Walker’s identify is recorded on the Partitions of the Lacking at Netherlands American Cemetery in Margarten, Netherlands, and a rosette will probably be positioned subsequent to his identify to point he has been accounted for.
