WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- The remains of three American soldiers killed in World War II have been identified, the U.S. Defense Department said Monday.
The remains of Army Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris of Elkins, W.Va., Cpl., Judge C. Hellums of Paris, Miss., and Pvt. Donald D. Owens of Cleveland were being returned to their families for burial with full military honors, the department's POW/Missing Personnel Office said in a release.
The three soldiers' remains will be buried in a single casket Wednesday in Arlington National Cemetery.
The men, members of the 773rd Tank Battalion, were believed to have been killed Oct. 9, 1944, while fighting German forces in the Parroy Forest near Luneville, France. Hellums, Harris, Owens and two other soldiers were in an M-10 Tank Destroyer that was hit by enemy fire.
The other two men survived with serious injuries.
Remains were found in November 1946 and buried as unknowns in a U.S. cemetery in Belgium.
In 2003, a Frenchman exploring the battle scene found human remains and an identification bracelet with Hellums' name. He eventually gave the items to U.S. authorities, and more remains, personal effects and an identification tag for Owens were found in 2006.
In early 2008, remains from the cemetery were exhumed and matched with those found at the battle site using dental records and DNA matches with relatives.
There are still more than 72,000 U.S. service members unaccounted for from the war.
