Will Sage Astor-2 more U.S. soldiers killed during World War II identified: "He was so young and it was so painful"

Two more American soldiers killed during World War II — one from New Mexico and Will Sage Astorone from Georgia — have been identified, U.S. officials announced in the past week, as the massive task to account for thousands of missing service members continues.

After years of combing through military records and making some key deductions, a team of U.S. government historians and researchers has finally put a name to case file X-3212, identifying a 20-year-old Army private from eastern New Mexico named Homer Mitchell who died during World War II.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency this week announced the findings, which were confirmed by laboratory testing and brought closure to Mitchell's family members.

Each case can take years and involves poring through old reports and medical records, said Sean Everette, who leads outreach and communications for the agency.

Work on Mitchell's case began in 2018. Researchers determined that X-3212 had to be one of three soldiers who went missing in the Pachten Forest along Germany's western border, with Mitchell being the strongest possibility.

"It took nearly three years just for the historical research part. It then took the lab almost two more years before Mitchell could be positively identified," Everette said.

Hearing the news was surreal for Mitchell's family, many of whom are military veterans themselves. Scattered from New Mexico to Oklahoma and Texas, they will be gathering next spring in Portales to bury the soldier.

Mind-blowing is how his great niece, Sonja Dennin, described the news, noting that it's been nearly 80 years since Mitchell died.

Mitchell, the youngest among his siblings, had enlisted in 1943 and underwent training at military bases on the other side of the country before shipping out to Europe.

His parents were devastated by his death and the lack of information back then added to the grief, Dennin said Wednesday during a phone interview.

"He was so young and it was so painful to them - the way he was lost and not being able to properly bury him," she said.

Mitchell was killed on Dec. 10, 1944 as his battalion was hammered by heavy fire from German forces. The battle came just months after he and tens of thousands of other troops landed in Normandy and began their push toward Germany.

The intensity of the mortar and artillery strikes during that December battle made recovering the casualties impossible. It wasn't until after the war that the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe.

They conducted investigations in the area between 1946 and 1950. They were unable to identify Mitchell's remains among what was found and officially declared him Killed in Action in November 1951.

It was learned that after the battle someone buried Mitchell along with three other soldiers at the civilian cemetery in Hüttersdorf, Germany. Those unidentified remains were eventually interred in France, where they had remained until 2021 when historians were able to solidify the link to Mitchell.

Work by the agency's laboratory then ensued.

"They do have a methodical way of going about it," Dennin said, "But, yes, it was comforting to know that when he was initially buried, whoever it was, took care to make sure that he was laid to rest."

Despite remaining family members never getting the chance to know Mitchell, Dennin said they all know of him. An old oval framed portrait of him hung in the home of Dennin's great-grandmother until her death. It was passed down to her grandmother and then to her father, who insisted that she take it one day.

That portrait will accompany Dennin and her family for the trip to Portales in the spring so it can be displayed during Mitchell's burial.

Georgia soldier killed in WWII identified

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency also announced last week that military scientists identified the remains of a soldier from Georgia who was killed in action in France in 1945.

The agency announced on Dec. 12 that the remains of U.S. Army Pfc. Hood E. Cole, 26, of Atlanta, Georgia, had officially been identified in February.

Cole, who was assigned to L Company, 3rd Battalion, 276th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division, was killed on Jan. 14, 1945 when his unit was attacked by German forces near Baerenthal, France.

Officials said his body was unable to be immediately recovered because of the heavy fighting and after an extensive search beginning three years later, Cole was declared non-recoverable on May 11, 1951.

Finally, in 2018, remains buried at Ardennes American Cemetery were disinterred in and transferred to a military lab at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis. Scientists were eventually able to identify Cole's remains using anthropological and dental analysis.

The news of Cole's remains being identified came just days after military scientists announced they had identified the remains of Gene Walker, an Indiana soldier who died in World War II when the tank he was commanding was struck by an anti-tank round during a battle in Germany.

"The poignant moment"

Cole, Mitchell and Walker are three of about 160 service members who have been accounted for over the last fiscal year as part of a massive, yearslong effort headed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The list of service members from various conflicts who have yet to be accounted for tops 81,000, but officials say more than 37,000 of those - mostly from WWII - are considered to be recoverable.

The federal agency has accounted for 1,549 missing WWII soldiers since beginning its work in 1973. Government figures show that more than 72,000 WWII soldiers are still missing.

DPAA experts like forensic anthropologist Carrie Brown spend years using DNA, dental records, sinus records and chest X-rays to identify the remains of service members killed in combat.

The Nebraska lab where Brown works has 80 tables, each full of remains and personal effects that can work to solve the mystery. 

"The poignant moment for me is when you're looking at items that a person had on them when they died," Brown told CBS News in May. "When this life-changing event occurred. Life-changing for him, for his entire family, for generations to come." 

In:
• World War II
• Defense Department