Remains of WWII solider identified as NC man
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — DNA, dental and other analyses confirmed the identity of remains buried in Belgium as a 27-year-old World War II soldier from North Carolina who died during battle in a German forest, officials with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Friday.
Army Pfc. David Owens, of Green Hill, was among the first soldiers to land on the French coast on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Allied troops invaded Nazi-occupied France, according to newspaper clippings when Owens was reported missing in action on Nov. 22, 1944.
Owens died while his unit battled German forces in the Hurtgen Forest, according to a DPAA news release. The release included newspaper photos and clippings of
Owens from when we was reported missing.
Owens was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th
Infantry Division, DPAA officials said.
“His body was unable to be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war,” according to the news release. “He was declared killed in action Nov. 23, 1945.”
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command searched the Hurtgen area several times between 1946 and 1950 but never recovered or identified Owens’ remains. The command led the investigations and recovery of missing American soldiers in Europe.
Owens “was declared non-recoverable in December 1950,” according to the DPAA release.
Thanks to a DPAA historian, remains believed to be
Owens were disinterred in August 2018 from Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Belgium, officials said.
While studying unresolved American cases in the Hurtgen area, the historian determined that a set of unidentified remains possibly belonged to Owens, according to the agency. The remains were recovered near Hurtgen in 1946 and buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, the historian found.
After the remains were disinterred, agency investigators sent them to a DPAA lab at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
DPAA scientists at the military base identified Owens through “dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence,” according to a news release. Scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System also confirmed his identity, through mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA analysis, officials said.
Owens “was accounted for” on June 15, said DPAA officials. It took until Friday for the agency to announce the findings because his family only recently received a full briefing on his identification, officials said.
Owens’ family couldn’t immediately be reached. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be determined, DPAA officials said.