The remains of an East Tennessee infantryman missing in action from one of the longest and most violent battles of World War II has been identified.
The government's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced this week it had confirmed the identity of 23-year-old Army Pfc. Lewis E. Price of Rogersville, Tenn.
Price took part in November 1944 in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest in Germany near Belgium as U.S. forces pushed forward to defeat Adolf Hitler. Price was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 109th Infantry, 28th Infantry Division.
Starting in September, forest combat dragged on for weeks, resulting in thousands of U.S. casualties. Trees stood thick and dark. One writer would compare it to the Civil War Battle of the Wilderness.
Price was reported missing Nov. 6, 1944, according to the agency, which identifies the remains of service members killed while fighting for the U.S. The war in Europe ended in May 1945.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command searched for Price's body, as it did for many fallen soldiers.
"Unable to make a correlation with any remains found in the area, he was declared non-recoverable," according to the agency.
In 1946, human remains that came to be identified as X-2736 Neuville were found in the forest. They were interred and classified as those of an unknown soldier in what today is known as the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.
According to Defense POW/MIA, a DPAA historian doing research came to suspect the remains were those of Price.
Two years ago, the remains were disinterred from Europe and moved to the agency's Hawaii lab for possible identification.
Scientists matched the bones to Price using DNA as well as dental and anthropological analysis, in addition to evidence found at the battle site. Formal accounting was made Sept. 24.
More than 72,000 service members remain unaccounted for from World War II, according to the agency.
Price's name can be found listed among the missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margaten, the Netherlands.
Now that he's been found, a rosette will be placed by his name at the monument, a symbol to show he is now longer missing.
To this day, human remains from the war are found in the Hurtgen Forest.
