Missing WWII soldier’s remains identified nearly 80 years later

The remains of a young World War II soldier from Illinois were identified in May, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on Monday.

Mount Olive resident John W. Radanovich, 23, served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II. His remains were identified after two years of analysis.

The soldier was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division when he disappeared during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in Germany. He was later reported missing in action.

“The Germans never reported Radanovich as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not immediately recovered,” the DPAA explained in a press release. “The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death in December 1945.”

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Despite efforts by the American Graves Registration Command to locate the soldier between 1946 and 1950, Radanovich’s remains were not identified.

Decades later, a DPAA historian postulated that a set of remains in Belgium’s Ardennes American Cemetery possibly belonged to Radanovich. The remains, which were recovered near Grosshau in 1946, were disinterred in May 2021.

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“While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen Forest, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2754A Neuville, recovered near Grosshau in 1946 possibly belonged to Radanovich,” the DPAA explained.

Scientists used anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis to positively identify the soldier’s remains.

Radanovich’s remains will be buried in his hometown of Mount Olive, though a burial date has not been determined.