Remains of WWII soldier killed nearly 80 years ago in France identified, to be reburied at national cemetery

A World War II soldier who was killed in the mountains of France during a German offensive in 1944 has been identified, and his remains will be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, military officials said this week. 

Jeremiah P. Mahoney, 19, of Chicago, was killed on Jan. 17, 1945, in the Vosges Mountains of France during a weeks-long battle.

Mahoney had been assigned to the Army's Anti-Tank Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, and his unit resupplied and reinforced the regiment during the fighting. 

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"At some point on Jan. 17, Mahoney was killed, but due to the intensity of the fighting his unit could not recover his body as it was forced to withdraw from the area," the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) said in a release Thursday. "With no record of German forces capturing Mahoney, and no remains recovered, the War Department issued a ‘Finding of Death’ in January 1946."

His death came just four months before Germany surrendered to the Allied forces in France in May 1945. 

Mahoney’s remains were recovered in 1946 by the American Graves Registration Command, but they were unable to be identified at the time and were eventually buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium in 1949. 

Two years ago, Mahoney’s remains were exhumed from the cemetery as DPAA historians began doing in-depth research into soldiers who went missing in the area, believing the remains, known then as Unknown X-6379, could be Mahoney’s. 

His remains were exhumed in August 2022 and transferred to a DPAA laboratory for analysis. 

Using DNA, anthropological and circumstantial evidence, he was identified in May of this year, and will eventually be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery. 

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A rosette will also be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, to show that he has been found. 

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