An army sergeant from Waterbury has been accounted for this summer after more than 70 years of having been classified as missing in action.
Army Sgt. Bernard J. Sweeney, Jr., 22, of Waterbury, Connecticut, was killed during World War II and accounted for on June 14, 2021, according to The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
Sweeney's unit -- Company I, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division -- was engaged with German forces near Strass, Germany on December 16, 1944 when he was reported missing in action, according to DPAA. His body was never recovered.
He was deemed non-recoverable in November 1951 following investigations and recovery missions in the area of the Hürtgen forest, DPAA said.
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A DPAA historian was able to later determine that remains taken from a battlefield in Germany in 1946 possibly belonged to Sweeney. Those remains had been interred in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950. For the purposes of identification, the remains were disinterred in 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, DPAA said.
Following testing and analysis, scientists were able to confirm the remains belonged to Sgt. Sweeney.
The date and location of services for Sgt. Sweeney have not been determined yet.
