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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Soldier Missing In Action From WWII Identified (Kight)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced todaythat the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identifiedand will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Pfc. Gerald W. Kight, 23, of White Salmon, Wash., will be buried May 19, in hishometown. In September 1944, Kight and the 82nd Division’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regimentwere dropped in the vicinity of Nijmegen, Netherlands, as part of the allied invasion codenamed“Market Garden.” Kight was manning a machine gun position near the town of Groesbeek, whenhe was overrun by German Forces.

On Sept. 12, 2011, the Royal Netherlands Army’s Recovery and Identification Unitrecovered human remains from a wartime foxhole, in a corn field northeast of Groesbeek. Alongwith the remains were military uniform fragments, and three military identification tags, whichbear the name and home address of Kight and his mother.

To identify the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command andused circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools such as dental comparisons.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died. At theend of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000Americans. Today, more than 73,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missingAmericans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.

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