WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Sgt. Ivor D. Thornton, 34, of Martinsville, Virginia, killed during World War II, was accounted for March 10, 2025.
On June 6, 1944, "D-Day," Sgt. Thornton landed on Omaha Beach with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regimental Combat Team, 29th Infantry Division. As part of the second wave of the invasion, Company H disembarked its landing craft around 7:00 a.m. Fellow soldiers last observed Sgt. Thornton wading ashore, but he was not seen thereafter.
On June 7, 1944, the day after the invasion, Thornton’s unit unsuccessfully searched for him. Consequently, the War Department listed him as missing in action. On June 8, 1944, graves registration personnel recovered a set of remains from Omaha Beach that they were unable to identify. They interred these remains in U.S. Military Cemetery (USMC) Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, adjacent to Omaha Beach, and designated them X-159 St. Laurent (X-159).
Graves registration personnel attempted to identify X-159 in March 1945, but they could not associate the body with a specific casualty. In June 1947, analysts with the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) were also unable to identify X-159. On March 3, 1949, a board of AGRC officers recommended the remains be declared unidentifiable.
In April 2022, Thornton's family, along with the family of another missing Soldier, requested X-159 be disinterred and compared to Thornton and the other Soldier. In September 2023, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains of X-159 and transferred them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Thornton’s remains, the DPAA scientific staff conducted dental and anthropological analyses. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System performed mitochondrial DNA analysis. DPAA would like to thank the Bedford Boys Tribute Center for its assistance with this case.
Thornton’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Thornton will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on a date yet to be determined.
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 our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency, www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Read Thornton's initial ID announcement here: Thornton.