MIA World War II veteran finally returns home to Maryland

A fallen World War II veteran from Maryland is finally returning home.

Up until February of this year, U.S. Army Private 1st Class Lemuel Dent Jr. was still considered missing in action.

Dent is believed to have been killed on February 8, 1945 while on board a tank that came under enemy fire as it crossed Italy's Cinquale Canal.

At the time Dent was assigned to the Company L, 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division “Buffalo Soldiers” in the European Theater.

Dent, of Charles County, was just 30-years-old at the time of his death.

It wasn't until May 5, 1945 when the American Graves Registration Command and Army Quartermaster Corps, deployed around the European Theater to recover missing U.S. soldiers unaccounted for.

Crews located a single grave site nearby with a set of remains they initially thought belonged to a soldier of the 92nd Infantry Division, but there wasn't enough available information to identify them.

Without a name, the military decided to rebury the soldier in what's now known as Florence American Cemetery.

A big break came in June of 2022 when the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission dug out the unknown soldier's remains to undergo anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

The results came back a match for Dent.

He'll be buried September 5 at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery in Prince George's County.