Washington –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Sgt. Norman H. Drewes, killed during World War II, was accounted for September 13, 2024.
In June 1944, Drewes was a member of Company D, 708th Amphibious Tank Battalion. He was killed June 15 during Operation Forager on the island of Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. Marines ashore on the island were under constant assault from Japanese mortars, which caused heavy casualties and impeded American’s movements. The exact cause of Drewes’s death is unknown, but it is believed his unit was providing armor support to the Marines’ initial landing on the beaches. Drewes’s remains were not known to have been accounted for during or after the war. The War Department declared him non-recoverable in June 1949.
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.