The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced in July that U.S. Army Sergeant John W. Radanovich, 23, of Mount Olive, Illinois, reported missing during World War II, was accounted for May 11, 2023.
In November 1944, Radanovich was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His rifle platoon was engaged in battle with German forces near the town of Grosshau, in Hürtgen Forest, Germany when he was reported missing in action Dec. 1, 1944.
Despite continued progress against German fighting positions, many soldiers were killed along the Company G battle line. The Germans never reported Radanovich as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not immediately recovered. The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death in December 1945.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950. None of the remains recovered during that time were identified as Radanovich.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen Forest, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2754A Neuville, recovered near Grosshau in 1946 possibly belonged to Radanovich. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
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To identify Radanovich’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
Radanovich’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margarten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Radanovich will be buried in Mount Olive, Illinois on a date yet to be determined.