WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pfc. Robert L. Bryant, 23, of Bloomington, Illinois, missing in action during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 18, 2024.
Bryant's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In September 1943, Bryant was assigned to Company B, 4th Ranger Battalion, “Darby’s Rangers,” in the Mediterranean Theater in World War II. He participated in Operation AVALANCHE, the amphibious invasion of Italy near Salerno, and engaged in fighting near the Chiunzi Pass on the Sorrento Peninsula. On September 23, Bryant was reported missing in action following a four-man patrol west of Pietre, Italy. His body was not recovered, and German forces never reported him a prisoner of war. The War Department declared him non-recoverable on July 19, 1949.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the Mediterranean Theater. In 1947, AGRS investigators recovered remains from a cemetery in the village of San Nicola. These remains were designated as X-152 Naples (X-152). The AGRS were unable to associate X-152 with nearby casualties. The remains were interred at U.S. Military Cemetery Nettuno, which is now Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.
In 2019, while studying unresolved American losses in Operation AVALANCHE, a DPAA historian compiled unit records, company morning reports and grave registration records that indicated Bryant was likely lost in the vicinity of the X-152 recovery location. Members from the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) disinterred the remains in March 2022 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify Bryant’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as circumstantial analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Bryant’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, an ABMC site in Nettuno, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Bryant will be buried in his hometown on April 12, 2025.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA would like to thank Descendants of World War II Rangers Inc., Associazione Salerno 1943, and the staff of the National Archives at College Park for their research assistance.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Bryant’s personnel profile can be viewed here https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001nzT7eEAE.
Read Bryant's initial ID announcement here: Bryant.