The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced recently that U.S. Army Pvt. J.C. Brooks, 19, of Rockfield, Kentucky, who was killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 27, 2022.
In the summer of 1943, Brooks was a member of Company I, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. His unit was part of Operation HUSKY, the Allied effort from July 10 to Aug. 17 to capture Sicily from Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italian regime. Brooks was killed during the Battle of Troina on Aug. 1 while leading an advance against German forces as first scout. He was unable to be recovered because of the fighting.
The American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was charged with recovering the remains of fallen service members in the European Theater following the war. Though they searched the area near Troina, they were unable to find remains that could be identified as Brooks. He was declared non-recoverable on April 9, 1947.
In 2016, DPAA historians began to investigate U.S. losses from the 1943 invasion of Sicily. During this research, one Unknown, X-22227 Monte Soprano, was a candidate to match Brooks. After extensive research and record comparison by DPAA historians and analysts, X-22227 was disinterred in June 2019 and sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.
To identify Brooks’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Brooks’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Nettuno, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Brooks will be buried September 24, 2023, in Cecilia, Kentucky.
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