WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. LeRoy B. Miller Jr., 31, of Indianapolis, Indiana, killed during World War II, was accounted for August 13, 2024.
Miller's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In November 1944, Miller was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. His battalion captured the town of Kommerscheidt, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. A series of heavy German counterattacks eventually forced his battalion to withdraw. Miller was reported killed in action on Nov. 8, while fighting enemy forces at Kommerscheidt. His remains could not be recovered after the attack.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. During that effort, a recovery team found a mass grave at Kommerscheidt that contained the remains of several American and German soldiers. The exhumation team found Miller's identification tag on one set of remains. The remains were sent to the United States Military Cemetery Neuville in Belgium for processing. Based upon the identification tag, AGRC officials identified the remains as Miller and transferred them to his family for final burial.
In 2017, while studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian analyzed documentation regarding three sets of unidentified remains, designated X-6566, X-6567 and X-6568, recovered from the same mass grave Miller's identification tag had been found in at Kommerscheidt in April 1946. The historian determined that the three Unknowns were likely members of the 1st or 3rd Battalions, 112th Infantry Regiment, killed during the bitter fighting of November 1944. DPAA scientists compared physiological data of several unaccounted-for soldiers from those battalions to the X-6566, X-6567, and X-6568 documentation and endorsed the disinterment recommendation.
Because the three Unknowns had been found in a mass grave, DPAA officials considered the possibility that Miller's remains may have been commingled in the grave or misprocessed and misidentified by the AGRC in the 1940s. They included him as a possible candidate for association to the Unknowns.
The three sets of remains were exhumed from the Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, in Aug. 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify Miller’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 and Y chromosome DNA analysis.
Miller’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Plombières, Belgium, 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.
Miller will be buried in Indianapolis, Indiana, on a date 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.
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.