Pvt. David Owens of Green Hill, North Carolina, described as “among the first” to land on June 6, 1944, was reported missing in action on November 22, 1944, in the Hurtgen Forest, scene of some of the Western Front’s most vicious fighting after D-Day.
The Germans never listed him as a POW, so he was declared KIA (killed in action) a year later. His remains were recovered in 1946 and buried as an unknown in the Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950.
In 2013, a historian with DPAA, the Defense Department’s official POW/MIA agency responsible for recovering and identifying American service members, suspected that set of remains might be Owens.
They were disinterred and sent to an identification lab in 2018. A positive identification was made on June 15, 2022, and he will be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. (read story here).
According to various sources, there’s still about 6,000 more like Owens — Americans killed in World War 2 whose remains were recovered but haven’t been identified.