FORT KNOX, Ky. / KILLEEN, Texas (FOX 44) – The remains of a soldier killed during World War II will be interred at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery next week.
The event will take place Friday, June 2, at 11463 TX-195. Graveside services for Army Pvt. Myron E. Williams will be performed by the Crotty Funeral Home of Belton preceding the interment.
Williams was a native of Dixon, Illinois, and was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His unit was battling German forces near Huertgen, Germany, in the Huertgen Forest – when he was reported missing in action on November 16, 1944, at age 29. His body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him a prisoner of war. Subsequently, the War Department issued a presumptive finding of death for Williams on November 17, 1945.
According to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with recovering missing American personnel in Europe following the end of the war. The organization conducted several investigations in the Huertgen area between 1946 and 1950 – but was unable to recover or identify Williams’ remains. He was declared non-recoverable in December 1951.
Historians with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency studying unresolved American losses in the Huertgen area, determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-5432 Neuville, recovered in Germeter and Huertgen, possibly belonged to Williams. The remains which were buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, in 1949, were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
While analyzing X-5432, DPAA scientists also examined X-5405 Neuville – found only 20 yards from X-5432 in 1947 – and discovered the two remains had been comingled.
Williams was accounted for by the DPAA on July 13, 2022, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence – as well as dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA analysis.
The U.S. Army Human Resources Command says Williams’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery – an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands – along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information about Pvt. Williams, you can go to: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/3115202/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-williams-m/
