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News Release

Press Release | March 22, 2021

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Reab, L.)

WAHSINGTON  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pvt. Lyle W. Reab, 22, of Phillips, Nebraska, killed during World War II, was accounted for Feb. 24, 2021.

 

In November 1944, Reab was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action as of Nov. 9, after his unit engaged German forces at Vossenack, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. His body was not recovered.

 

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. Several AGRC investigation teams searched for and recovered remains in the Hürtgen Forest following World War II, but none were identified as Reab. He was declared non-recoverable in December 1950.

 

While studying unresolved American losses in the Vossenack area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-7388 Neuville, recovered from a foxhole on the southeastern end of town in March 1948 possibly belonged to Reab. The remains, which had been buried as an unknown soldier in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1949, were disinterred in June 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.

 

To identify Reab’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

 

Reab’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

 

Reab will be buried June 8, 2021, in Aurora, Nebraska.

 

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

 

DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission and to the U.S. Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

 

Visit https://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Briefing-Videos/ to watch a video about DPAA’s Hürtgen Forest Project.

 

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

 

Reab’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001aRaDxEAK.