Virginia Soldier killed during the invasion of D -Day represented more than 80 years later Blogging Sole

A soldier from Virginia who died on D -Day was recorded 81 years after being killed, officials said in a press release.

SGT of the American army. IVOR D. Thornton, 34, landed Omaha Beach in Normandy With the company H, 2nd battalion, 116th Infantry Regimental Combat Team, 29th Infantry Division as part of the second wave of the invasion, the Defense Pow / Mia Accounting Agency said in a press release. D -day, or overlord of the operation, was a Massive allied invasion of the north of France by air and sea during the Second World War. The operation, June 6, 1944, marked the start of Liberation of Europe of Hitler’s rule.

The company landed from their landing profession around 7 a.m., the other soldiers observed Thornton wadBut it was not seen after that, said the DPAA. The day after the invasion, Thornton’s unit sought it, but it was not found. He was officially listed as disappeared in combat. Its name was engraved on the walls of the missing in the American cemetery of Normandy in Colleville-sur-Mer, in France.

On June 8, 1944, two days after D -Day, the Graves registration staff recovered a set of remains from Omaha beach that they could not identify, said DPAA. The remains were buried in the American military cemetery Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, near Omaha beach, and marked like the X-159 St. Laurent.

In 1945, an attempt was made to identify the unknown leftovers, but the effort failed, said DPAA. Analysts of the Graves of American Registration Command did not succeed in identifying the remains in 1947. Two years later, in 1949, a command officer advice recommended that the leftovers be declared unidentifiable.

In April 2022, two families, including Thornton’s, asked that the X-59 be disinterested. Families asked that the leftovers be compared to those of Thornton and another soldier. The remains were exhumed in September 2023 and Transferred to the DPAA laboratory. Scientists have carried out dental and anthropological analyzes and an analysis of mitochondrial DNA, said DPAA.

These efforts finally identified the remains as belonging to Thornton. A rosette will be placed next to his name on the missing walls to indicate that he was explained, said the DPAA, and he will be buried in the national cemetery of Arlington in Washington, DC