The remains of an unknown World War II soldier buried more than 70 years ago in Belgium have been identified.
Army Sgt. Bernard J. Sweeney, Jr., 22, was reported missing in action on Dec. 16, 1944, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on Thursday that his remains had been accounted for after all of these years.
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“I have some pride there and some really good feelings about what he did for all of our country,” Tammy Hynes, Sweeney’s great-niece and closest living relative, told the Associated Press.
“The fact that they went to these great lengths to identify him and honor him in the way I think he should be honored for what he did, for giving his life for our great country,” she added. “I really wished my dad was still alive to know this.”
Sweeney and his unit, Company I, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division, engaged in a battle with German forces in the Hurtgen Forest near Strass, Germany, and his remains were never found.
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He was declared non-recoverable in November 1951, after the American Graves Registration Command did not find his body while conducting several investigations into the Hurtgen area between 1946 and 1950.
An agency historian determined one set of unidentified remains could’ve belonged to Sweeney, so the remains, which had been buried at Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2019. The scientist used dental and anthropological analysis to confirm Sweeney’s identity.
