HUNTSVILLE, Tenn. — After 76 years, an Army private killed during World War II finally came home.
Army Pfc. Oliver Jeffers was buried Wednesday in his hometown of Huntsville, Tennessee, WBIR reported. Jeffers, who was 31 when he was killed in the Hürtgen Forest in Germany, was buried in the cemetery behind Fairview Missionary Baptist Church on his 107th birthday, the television station reported.
“You’re always wondering, you’re always making some kind of scenario that he’s gonna come home OK," Jeffers’ nephew, Basil Massey, told WBIR. " But he never did."
According to a news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Jeffers' body was finally accounted for April 23, 2020.
World War II veteran laid to rest 76 years after death https://t.co/hYt4x3yEhW
— WBIR Channel 10 (@wbir) October 7, 2020
According to the U.S. Army, Jeffers, who was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, was killed in action Nov. 10, 1944. His body could not be recovered because of the ongoing fighting, according to the Accounting Agency news release.
“My father told me one time, ‘Maybe he found a German girl and decided to stay over there,’” Massey told WBIR.
A historian determined that a set of unidentified remains, recovered from a minefield near Germeter, Germany, possibly belonged to Jeffers, the DPAA said. The remains, which had been buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, to determine the remains belonged to Jeffers.
“Men like Oliver Jeffers stood together and sacrificed so that we could have a free world today,” Jim West, pastor of White Rock Baptist Church, told WBIR.
About 100 people came to the service, the television station reported.
“It was bigger than I figured it would be,” Massey said.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee lowered flags at the state Capitol to half-staff in Jeffers' honor Wednesday. Jeffers was buried with full military honors.
Flags over the Capitol and all State office buildings will fly at half-staff today in honor of the ultimate sacrifice of US Army PFC Oliver Jeffers of Huntsville, TN.
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) October 7, 2020
Jeffers died while serving in World War II and he is being brought home to be laid to rest in Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/L2ZIvuvfsm
“Help me to honor this man right here,” West told the congregation. “Help me to honor this life as a sacrifice. Help me to stand good for Oliver Jeffers.”
Jeffers’ personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BT3kEAG.
“I’m glad it’s happened,” Massey told WBIR. “I’m glad he’s finally home.”
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