Press Release | Aug. 7, 2023

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Sweeney, B.)

WASHINGTON  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Sgt. Bernard J. Sweeney, Jr., 22, of Waterbury, Connecticut, killed during World War II, was accounted for June 14, 2021.

In December 1944, Sweeney was assigned to Company I, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division. His unit had been engaged in battle with German forces near Strass, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported missing in action on Dec. 16. His body was not recovered.

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, but were unable to recover or identify Sweeney’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in November 1951.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2752 Neuville, recovered from a minefield north of Kleinhau, Germany, in 1946 possibly belonged to Sweeney. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.

To identify Sweeney’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

Sweeney’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.

Sweeney will be laid to rest Oct. 10, 2023, in Wading River, New York.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.