The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced U.S. Army Private First Class John H. Walker, missing from World War II, has now been accounted for (18 April 2018).

On Nov. 24, 1944, PFC Walker was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, when he was reported missing in action after his unit engaged in fierce fighting on Hill 207 near Schönthal, Germany in the Hürtgen Forest. With no evidence that Walker had been captured or survived combat, his status was changed to deceased on Nov. 25, 1945.

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Entered the service from Iowa.

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The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that U.S. Army Private First Class John H. Walker, 20, of Morning Sun, Iowa, accounted for on April 11, 2018 will be buried June 20 in his hometown. On Nov. 24, 1944, Walker was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, when he was reported missing in action after his unit engaged in fierce fighting on Hill 207 near Schönthal, Germany in the Hürtgen Forest. With no evidence that Walker had been captured or survived combat, his status was changed to deceased on Nov. 25, 1945.

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) collected thousands of unknown sets of remains from battlefields in Germany, and labeled each set with an X-number.

In November 1948, German resident Mr. Bernhard Kueppers found remains in the woods at the northern edge of the Hürtgen Forest near Langerwehe, Germany, and notified AGRC personnel, who recovered them the following month. The remains were processed at the Central Identification Point in Neuville Belgium, and designated X-7980 Neuville. In September 1949, the remains were declared unidentifiable and were interred at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neuville, France.

In April 1949, with no association between Walker and X-7980 Neuville, an AGRC investigator traveled to Schönthal to investigate the loss of Walker, however no remains could be located. On Dec. 15, 1950, having received no further evidence that could lead to the recovery of Walker, he was declared non-recoverable.

In 2016, a historian from DPAA conducted a study of unresolved American losses in the northern part of the Hürtgen Forest. Careful analysis of AGRC records and unit combat reports indicated a strong association between X-7980 and Walker.

Based off of that research, and a thorough scientific review of the biological and dental records, the DPAA and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed X-7980 in June 2017 and transferred the remains to DPAA.

To identify Walker’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-STR) DNA analysis, as well as dental and anthropological analysis.

DPAA is grateful to Mr. Kueppers and the American Battle Monuments Commission for their partnership with this disinterment and recovery.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,917 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Walker’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission in Margraten, along with the others missing from WWII. Although interred as an Unknown in Neuville American Cemetery, Walker’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the ABMC. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.∼John Walker was born in Morning Sun Township, Louisa County, Iowa, July 3, 1924. His parents were Samuel Nathaniel "Sam" and Jennie "Reil" (Hannah) Walker. He was their second child (and for his father, who was married before, it was his thirteenth child).

John grew up on the family farm and joined the army during World War II, joining his half brothers Paul Moyers Walker and William David Walker, who were also in the armed forces. They returned after the war, but John was killed near Aachen, Germany, November 24, 1944. His remains were never found; a marker for him exists at the U. S. Cemetery in Margraten, Holland.

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The Morning Sun News-Herald, front page, December 6, 1945:

JOHN WALKER DECLARED DEAD BY WAR DEPARTMENT
MISSING IN ACTION FOR MORE THAN A YEAR - PRESUMED DEAD.

Pfc John H. Walker, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. N. Walker of this place, has been officially declared killed in action after his name has been carried on the rolls of missing for more than a year.

John entered the service in March 1944, and was sent overseas in September of that year. The following November 24 he was reported missing in action and since that time no official word has been received by his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Walker exhausted every resource in efforts to gain knowledge of their son and although on at least one occasion it seemed that there might be some grounds for hope that John was alive, the communication just received from the War Department is the first official message bearing on the young man's fate. John is the sixth Morning Sun boy to die in action in World War II.

The full text of the dispatch to Mr. and Mrs. Walker is given below:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Walker,

Since your son, Private First Class John H. Walker, 37692327, Infantry, was reported missing in action 24 November 1944, the War Department has entertained the hope that he survived and that information would be revealed dispelling the uncertainty surrounding his absence. However, as in many cases, the condition of warfare deny us such information. The record concerning your son shows that he participated in an attack on a hill near Schonthal, Germany, on 24 November 1944. During the advance on the enemy, in the vicinity of the hill, the company suffered many casualties and your son became missing in the morning during the attack. Although a detailed search was made afterward he was not located and no trace of your son has been found since that time.

Full consideration has recently been given to all available information bearing on the absence of your son, including all records, reports, and circumstances. These have been carefully reviewed and considered. In view of the fact that twelve months have now expired without the receipt of evidence to support a continued presumption of survival, the War Department must terminate such absence by a presumptive finding of death. Accordingly, an official finding of death has been recorded under the provisions of Public Law 490, 77th Congress, approved March 7, 1942, as amended.

The finding does not establish an actual or probable date of death; however, as required by law it includes a presumptive date of date for the termination of pay and allowances, settlements of accounts and payment of death gratuities. In the case of your son this date has been set as 25 November 1945, the day following the expiration of two months' absence.

I regret the necessity for this measure, but trust that the ending of a long period of uncertainty may give at least some small measure of consolation. I hope you may find sustaining comfort in the thought that the uncertainty with which war has surrounded the absence of your son has enhanced the honor of his service to his country and of his sacrifice.

Sincerely yours,
Edward F. Witsell,
Major General
Acting the Adjutant General of the Army

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The Hawk Eye, Sunday, September 10, 1972, page 32; Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa:

Mystery of Missing Morning Sun GI in World War II Unravels; by Les Peck

Morning Sun (IA) -- More than a quarter of a century ago, Morning Sun soldier John Walker disappeared in a German forest while fighting with his World War II Army buddies.

Now, 28 years after Walker was last seen alive on November 24, 1944, his family is beginning to learn what might have happened to this youthful GI.

The puzzle surrounding Walker is being pieced together by Roger Aldinger, 48, a veteran of the Big War who operates a farm machinery repair shop on Sigourney Route 2.

Aldinger has corresponded with Walker's sister, Mrs. Marjorie Kimble, Morning Sun, and has had one personal visit with Mr. Kimble and her husband Trevor at his Sigourney home.

Aldinger will visit the Kimble home here later this fall to show pictures and other documentation of the battle area where he and Walker served. No date has been set for the visit.

Mrs. Kimble explained how the researcher began tracing her brother during an interview at her home, which included a reading of the correspondence between the Sigourney man and Mrs. Kimble.

Walker was 20 and working on the farm of his father, S. N. Walker, when he was drafted in March 1944. He was home on leave in August before he was shipped to the European front.

The GI apparently was killed November 24, 1944, in the Hurtgen forest during a 2-week long battle near Schonthal, Germany.

Walker's parents were informed in a letter November 25, 1945, from Major General Edward Witsell that no trace of their son could be found, and that the Army had officially declared him dead.

Aldinger, who began research into World War II to locate areas in which he fought, heard of Walker by coincidence. He knew Marion Barnes of Sigourney, former Wapello postmaster, and he recalled seeing an advertisement in a VFW magazine in 1947 inserted by Walker's father asking for information about his son. Aldinger got Mrs. Kimble's name from a telephone book and began writing her.

Walker and Aldinger were a half-mile apart in the forest fighting, Aldinger believes, a conclusion he drew partially as a result of visiting the Schonthal area in 1966 with his wife, Elizabeth, who helps him with research.

Both men were in the 1st Infantry Division -- Walker in the 18th Regiment and Aldinger in the 26th Regiment.

The battle involved eight divisions (120,000 men), Aldinger said, in an area the size of Keokuk county. From November 16 to December 6, there were 44,000 men killed, wounded, or missing.

Walker's name has been found on the Tablets of the Missing memorial in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Holland, but there is no proof that he was killed or was buried there.

The government is to send Mrs. Kimble a color picture of the cemetery and a black and white photo of the portion of the tablet with her brother's name.

Aldinger believes that more information can be brought to light. He is continuing his research, working by letter with a German named Peter, whom he met in 1966 and who lives near Hurtgen forest. Peter was in the German army stationed about five miles from the 1944 battle.

Mrs. Kimble's sister, Viola, Corpus Christi, Texas, will be in Morning Sun this fall when Aldinger visits here. Only other person in the immediate family is a brother, Robert, Fort Worth, Texas.

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Iowa Birth Records, at Family Search:

Name: John Henry Walker; Event: Birth; Event Date: 3 July 1924; Event Place: Morning Sun Township, Louisa, Iowa, United States; Gender: Male; Father: Samuel N. Walker; Mother: J. Reil Hannah; Film Number: 1870318; Digital Folder Number: 004708043; Image Number: 00566

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The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, accounted for from World War II, are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Pfc. John H. Walker, 20, of Morning Sun, Iowa, and accounted for on April 11, 2018, will be buried June 20 in his hometown.

~Fulfilling Our Nation's Promise~