Washington –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Frank J. Seiferheld, 25, of New York, New York, killed during World War II, was accounted for Feb. 12, 2024.
In January of 1945, Seiferheld was assigned to the 348th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 99th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force in the Mediterranean and European Theater of Operations. On Jan 20, Seiferheld was the radio operator onboard a B-17 “Flying Fortress,” when it experienced engine trouble after departing Italy for a bombing raid on an oil depot near Regensburg, Germany. According to records of the mission, the pilot radioed that they were returning to the Tortorella Airfield without a fighter escort. The last sighting of Seiferheld’s aircraft was West of Udine, Italy, roughly 45 miles North of the Gulf of Trieste.
Beginning in 1945, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. Following the war, the AGRC discovered the remains of an unknown servicemember in the Gulf of Trieste, roughly 100 yards from the shoreline in Grado, Italy. At the time they were unable to identify Sgt. Seiferheld and the remains were interred in the Florence American Cemetery as Unknown X-83.
In 2018, DPAA investigators and American Battle Monuments Commission personnel exhumed the remains of X-83 for comparison with unresolved servicemembers. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification.
To identify Seiferheld’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Seiferheld’s name is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Sgt. Seiferheld will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, on a date and time to be determined by the family.
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 or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.