Washington –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Private 1st Class Lemuel Dent Jr., 30, of Ironsides, Maryland, missing in action during World War II, was accounted for February 2, 2024.
In February 1945, Dent was assigned to the Company L, 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division “Buffalo Soldiers” in the European Theater. On Feb. 8, Dent was killed near the Cinquale Canal, north of Viareggio, Italy. Pfc. Dent was on board a tank that was crossing the canal, when it was struck by enemy mortar, machine gun, and artillery fire. His body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him a prisoner of war.
Following the war on May 5, 1945, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. AGRC investigators recovered a set of remains, designated as X-124 Castelfiorentino, from a single gravesite approximately 2 miles west of Pietrasanta and 500 yards north of the Cinquale Canal. The investigators initially associated the remains as possibly belonging to a soldier of the 92nd Infantry Division, but didn’t have enough identifying data to make a positive identification. The remains were permanently interred at what is now Florence American Cemetery.
In June 2022, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains of X-124 from Florence American Cemetery for forensic analysis. Historians at the DPAA have determined that the X-124 remains most likely belonged to a member of 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry Regiment, killed in the vicinity of the Cinquale Canal in December 1944 or February 1945. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify Dent’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Pfc. Dent’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at 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.
Pfc. Dent will be buried in Cheltenham, Maryland on a date to be determined.
DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission for their partnership in this mission.
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.
Dent’s personnel profile can be viewed at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001nzT5LEAU.