The remains of an eastern Kentucky soldier killed during World War II will be buried this month in his hometown, the Army said.
The burial at Wind Cave Baptist Church in McKee (Jackson Co.) for Pfc. Berton J. McQueen is scheduled for October 16 and will follow funeral services by Lakes Funeral Home.
McQueen, 20, was accounted for in July, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said earlier.
McQueen was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division in November 1944 as troops battled the German infantry in Clefcy, the agency said. He was mortally wounded and died Nov. 23 at an aid station after the 1st Battalion was forced to abandon the city. When German troops withdrew, his body wasn’t found.
Remains recovered in 1946 from a garden in Clefcy couldn’t be identified at the time but were exhumed in 2019 and confirmed as McQueen though research, DNA testing and dental and anthropological analysis.
A rosette will be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing at the Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France.
By the Associated Press and Ken Howlett, News Director
