After nearly 80 years, the remains of a Charles County native who was killed in action during WWII will be coming back to the area.
U.S. Army Pfc. Lemuel Dent Jr. will be interred on Sept. 5 at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery in Prince George’s County. Johnson Funeral Services of White Plains will perform graveside services preceding the interment.
A native of Ironsides, an area on Route 6 in Charles County, Dent was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division, known as the “Buffalo Soldiers” in the European Theater.
He was killed Feb. 8, 1945, at age 30, near the Cinquale Canal, north of Viareggio, Italy, when the tank he was aboard was struck by enemy fire while crossing the canal.
The tank was struck by enemy mortar, machine gun and artillery fire. His body was not recovered at the time, and the Germans never reported him a prisoner of war, the Defense POW/MIA Account Agency said in a release.
On May 5, 1945, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. Investigators recovered a set of remains, designated as X-124 Castelfiorentino, from a gravesite approximately 2 miles west of Pietrasanta and 500 yards north of the Cinquale Canal, the accounting agency’s release said.
The investigators initially associated the remains as possibly belonging to a soldier of the 92nd Infantry Division but did not have enough identifying data to make a positive identification. The remains were permanently interred at what is now Florence American Cemetery, the release said.
Dent was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency earlier this year on Feb. 2, after X-124’s remains were exhumed in June 2022 from the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy, for laboratory analysis and identification, U. S. Army Human Resources Command Public Affairs Office said in a release.
To identify Dent’s remains, scientists used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, the accounting agency’s release said.
The Past Conflict Repatriations Branch, under the Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Division at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox, Ky., plays a key role in the process of locating family members of missing soldiers from WWII and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The process begins with locating the family member most closely related to the missing soldier — known as the primary next of kin — followed by a request for family reference samples or DNA, which are used as a main source in identifying remains.
Once a soldier has been identified by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, the Past Conflict Repatriations Branch notifies and briefs the family about the results of historical, forensic and DNA reports, benefits and the mortuary process including burial with full military honors.
Terrence Johnson of Johnson Funeral Services said that this is the first time that he has dealt with a WWII soldier who was killed in action.
Johnson was unsure if this was the first time a WWII soldier was reinterred in Charles County.
He said it was “hard to say” how attended the public funeral may be as Dent was survived by four sisters and five brothers, but the family members are “spread out.”
Dent’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
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