WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Henry C. Wade, 24, of Decatur, Kentucky, killed during World War II, was accounted for May 11, 2023.
In November 1944, Wade was assigned to Company K, 3d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, as an infantryman. His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near the Germeter-Hürtgen Road where they encountered heavy resistance. Fighting raged for several days, during which Wade was killed in action. Due to the tactical situation his remains were not immediately recovered. He was declared non-recoverable December 1951.
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.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen Forest area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-4462 Neuville, possibly belonged to an American soldier killed near the town of Hürtgen in November 1944, such as Wade. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, in 1949, were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify Wade’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 (mtDNA) analysis.
Wade’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margarten, 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.
Wade will be buried Nov. 29, 2023, in Russell Springs, Kentucky.
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 our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, and find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Wade’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000Xm6AEAS.