The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced in March that U.S. Army Pvt. James B. McCartney, 22, of Ridgeway, Colorado, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 21, 2023.
In early 1945, McCartney was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division. On March 1, McCartney was killed in action while his unit was on patrol near Wildenguth, France. The Germans never reported McCartney as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not immediately recovered.
Beginning in 1947, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, searched the area around Wildenguth. None of the investigations uncovered any leads regarding the disposition of McCartney’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable on Oct. 8, 1951.
DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into Soldiers missing from combat around Wildenguth. and found that X-6492, buried in Lorraine American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France, could be associated with McCartney. X-6492 was disinterred in August 2022 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis.
To identify McCartney’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR), analysis.
McCartney’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
McCartney will be buried March 30, 2024, in Bakersfield, California