WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. James C. Loyd, 19, of Brilliant, Alabama, missing in action during World War II, was accounted for March 14, 2024.
Loyd's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In January 1944, Loyd was assigned to the Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division. On Jan. 31, Loyd was reported missing when his unit was engaged by German Forces near the town of Cisterna di Latina (Cisterna), Italy. He was last seen during a reconnaissance patrol north of the village of Conca. His body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him a prisoner of war. The War Department issued a finding of death on Apr. 19, 1945.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. In 1945, AGRC investigators recovered a set of remains designated as X-834, near the small hamlet of Ponte Rotto thought to be associated with Loyd. The investigators didn’t have enough identifying data to positively ID the remains and they were interred at U.S. Military Cemetery Nettuno, which is now Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. He was declared non-recoverable in 1948.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Anzio battlefield, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains designated X-834 recovered near Ponte Rotto possibly belonged to Pvt. Loyd. The remains which had been buried at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy, in 1948, were disinterred in September 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify Loyd's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Loyd’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery an American Battle Monuments Commission 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.
Loyd will be buried in Elwood, Illinois, in May 2025.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
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.
Read Loyd's initial ID announcement here: Loyd.