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The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is working to determine dozens of Black troopers killed in World War II. They served as a part of the 92nd Infantry Division, often known as the Buffalo Soldiers.
“The idea that we can first tell them this is how it happened, this is how he died a hero. This is the thing he was doing and what it meant to the war. And then being able to identify him after. It’s just it’s a very, very humbling thing for our job,” DPAA historian-analyst Josh Frank stated. “Every story is different.”
In 1866, Congress handed laws to create six all-Black Army Units. The finish of the nineteenth century additionally introduced the tip of the Indian Wars, the place the Buffalo Soldiers received their title. Twenty p.c of U.S. cavalry troopers have been Black. Native Americans referred to them as Buffalo Soldiers to represent their respect for the troopers’ bravery and valor.
“The two big units during World War II that everyone talks about as far as segregation goes was the 92nd Infantry Division, the Buffalo Soldiers and the 332nd fighter Group, which were the Tuskegee Airmen,” Frank stated.
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Members of the 92nd Infantry Division carry weapons throughout a discipline. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
U.S. Private First Class Lemuel Dent Jr. served as a part of the Buffalo Soldiers and was lately recognized by the DPAA practically 80 years after his demise.
“A lot of people talk about Normandy and Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge. I think the Italian campaign gets a little bit forgotten,” Frank stated.
PFC Dent was stationed alongside the Gothic Line northwest of Pisa, close to Viareggio, Italy, together with different members of the 366th Infantry Regiment.
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“There was all this marshland that was between the coastline and the mountains that they were trying to get over,” Frank stated. “While they were trying to get past the landmines to get to the mountains, they were getting hit by artillery and mortar fire.”
U.S. Army archive information present documentation of U.S. Private First Class Lemuel Dent Jr., who was killed in World War II. (United States Army 366th Infantry Regiment and different Colored Divisions Collection, #8501. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)
Dent was driving a tank that got here below hearth whereas crossing a canal. The space the place he died remained in enemy fingers for one more two months as combating continued. It delayed the potential for recovering his stays and stays of dozens of others.
“The whole 366th Infantry Regiment, which PFC Denton was assigned to, that whole unit was almost decimated,” Frank stated.
Thirty have been killed in motion, and 177 have been wounded. PFC Dent was amongst these lacking in motion.
Members of the 92nd Infantry hearth a mortar on this {photograph} from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
“We’ve identified three so far. PFC Dent would be the fourth,” Frank stated. “We have a very large-scale project, dealing with unknowns in the Florence American Cemetery. So, after the war, a lot of those remains were gathered up by the Army, who went out to search for missing people. Any remains they could not identify are still buried in Florence American Cemetery in Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Italy as unknowns. And we have a very large-scale project aimed at research to exhume those remains and identify them.”
Rows of gravestones within the Florence American Cemetery in Italy, the place the stays of many unidentified troopers misinform this present day. The DPAA continues to be working to determine these males utilizing DNA samples amongst different means. (American Battle Monuments Commission)
The DPAA has performed thorough analysis as to the place the remaining lacking Buffalo Soldiers died.
“We’ve mapped out the battlefields. We know where men were missing. We know where men were recovered, where they are to be recovered. I think our biggest problem right now is, out of the 49 who are left, we have about ten that we do not have DNA samples from their families,” Frank stated. “That slows our process down, because if we don’t have DNA to match them to, we can’t exclude them. Sometimes, excluding someone is just as good as identifying some others because it helps say that it can’t be them.”
As for PFC Dent, his members of the family will lastly have the ability to honor his service.
A rosette subsequent to the title of U.S. Private First Class Lemuel Dent Jr. on a memorial for lacking troopers within the Florence American Cemetery in Italy. The rosette signifies that his stays have been recognized. Dent served as a part of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division throughout World War II. (American Battle Monuments Commission)
“That’s the whole reason that our office exists and does what we do,” Frank stated. “I was a soldier myself. I think, for the most part, soldiers don’t really worry about themselves. I know when I was a soldier, my big worry was always, if something ever happens to me, how is my mom going to feel? What’s my family going to do?”
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Most abroad American cemeteries checklist the names of troopers who went lacking in motion on a memorial. For those that are ultimately recognized, a rosette is positioned close to their names. In July, a ribbon was positioned by PFC Dent’s title at Florence American Cemetery.
“We’re talking about PFC Dent because the agency hit a home run. Because we made an identification. We put the same work that we put into PFC Dent, even into our strikeouts,” Frank stated. “It’s very, very emotional. It’s a lot of pressure. So, when we do get an identification, of course, it feels good. But it also has to feel good enough to sustain you through the gut punch of whenever we get it wrong.”
