The remains of an East Tennessee Army infantryman identified decades after dying on a notorious World War II battlefield will arrive back home Friday, according to the U.S. Army's Casualty Office.
Army Pfc. Lewis E. Price, 23, died in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, a conflict toward the end of the war in Germany near the Belgian border. His remains, while recovered in 1946, were only recently confirmed.
Price's remains are to be flown Friday night by commercial jet to the Tri-Cities Airport in Blountville, according to the Casualty Office. His graveside funeral is set for 2 p.m. Dec. 14 at Highland Cemetery in Rogersville, his hometown, according to James Sells of the Christian-Sells Funeral Home.
Christian-Sells in Rogersville is handling arrangements.
Hurtgen Forest was one of the longest and most violent battles between German and American forces. Combat dragged on for weeks in fall 1944, and U.S. casualties amounted to the thousands.
Price was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 109th Infantry, 28th Infantry Division.
He 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 (Price) 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 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 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 of Price's remains 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 no longer missing.
To this day, human remains from the war are found in the Hurtgen Forest.
