The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced recently two soldiers who were killed during World War II had been accounted for.
Army Tech. Sgt. Arthur W. Countryman, 37, and Army Sgt. Bernard J. Sweeney, Jr., 22, who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country were accounted for on June 14, 2021.
In November 1944, Countryman was assigned to Company F, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Hürtgen, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported killed in action on Nov. 20 of that year. His body was not recovered.
In December 1944, Sweeney was assigned to Company I, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division. His unit had been engaged in battle with German forces near Strass, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported missing in action on Dec. 16 of that year. His body was not recovered.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Countryman’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in September 1951.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-5430 Neuville, originally discovered by a German woodcutter and recovered by the AGRC in 1947, possibly belonged to Countryman. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
To identify Countryman’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR), and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
Countryman’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.
Countryman will be buried Aug. 6, 2021, in his hometown.
As of this week, there are still more than 20,925 Americans who remain missing in the European theatre of World War II.
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