WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. James G. Loterbaugh, 35, of Roseville, Ohio, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 20, 2024.
Loterbaugh’s family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In December 1944, Loterbaugh was assigned to Company C, 774th Tank Battalion, as a crewmember on an M4 “Sherman” tank. On Dec. 11, his platoon became separated from the rest of the company during a battle with German forces near Strass, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. The enemy surrounded Strass and by mid-day the entire platoon, including Loterbaugh’s tank, was reported Missing in Action. The Germans never reported Loterbaugh as a prisoner of war and Army personnel who searched the battlefield after the fighting found no lead regarding his fate. The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death in December 1945.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950. In the fall of 1947, investigators found unidentified remains in a destroyed tank near Strass. Officials designated them X-1128 Margraten (X-1128). Comparison and analysis were made, but at the time X-1128 could not be identified as Loterbaugh.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that X-1128, recovered from one of the burned-out tanks in Strass, possibly belonged to Loterbaugh. The remains, which had been buried in Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, were disinterred in July 2022 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Loterbaugh’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA, and autosomal DNA analysis.
Loterbaugh’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.
Loterbaugh will be buried in Dayton, Ohio on a date yet to be determined.
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. DPAA would also like to thank Willem Doms for assisting our historians in finding the historical location of Loterbaugh’s tank.
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 Loterbaugh's initial ID announcement here: Loterbaugh.