Remains of WWII solider identified as North Carolina man

GREEN HILL, N.C. — DNA, dental and different analyses have confirmed the identification of stays buried in Belgium as a 27-year-old World Conflict II soldier from North Carolina who died throughout battle in a German forest.

The Charlotte Observer experiences that officers with the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company mentioned in a information launch Friday that Military Pfc. David Owens, of Inexperienced Hill in Watauga County, died whereas his unit battled German forces in a forest close to Hürtgen, Germany.

Owens was among the many first troopers to land on the French coast on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Allied troops invaded Nazi-occupied France, in accordance with newspaper clippings when Owens was reported lacking in motion on Nov. 22, 1944.

Owens was assigned to Firm E, 2nd Battalion, twelfth Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, DPAA officers mentioned.

Due to a DPAA historian, stays believed to be Owens have been disinterred in August 2018 from Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Fee website in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, officers mentioned. Company investigators despatched the stays to a DPAA lab at Offutt Air Pressure Base, Nebraska.

DPAA scientists on the army base recognized Owens by “dental and anthropological evaluation, in addition to circumstantial proof,” in accordance with the information launch.

Owens’ household couldn’t instantly be reached by the newspaper.

Owens shall be buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery at a date to be decided, DPAA officers mentioned.