WASHINGTON— The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today
that Army Pvt. Ballard McCurley, 34, of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, killed
during World War II, was accounted for on June 4, 2019.

In November 1944, McCurley was a member of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 12th
Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, during the Battle of the Hürtgen
Forest in Germany. On Nov. 29, 1944, his battalion went to a reserve
position in the woods west of the town of Hürtgen. He and other Soldiers in
his unit were ordered to clear a field of tree stumps so vehicles could drop
off rations and supplies. According to witnesses, while clearing out a tree
stump, McCurley inadvertently set off an enemy anti-personnel mine and was
killed instantly. His remains were not recovered or identified immediately
after his loss.

After the war, McCurley’s remains were still missing. The American Graves
Registration Command (AGRC) extensively searched the Hürtgen Forest for him.
Unable to make a correlation among the dozens of unknown remains found in
the area, the Army declared him non-recoverable.

While studying unresolved American losses in and unidentified remains
recovered from the Hürtgen Forest, DPAA personnel analyzed historical
documentation regarding X-7359 Neuville, a set of unidentified remains
recovered in March 1948 from District #196 of the Hürtgen Forest by the
AGRC. The remains had originally been found by a German civilian walking
along a forest trail who later led an AGRC team to the site. The AGRC team
found the remains lying on the ground, surrounded by U.S. Army infantry
equipment. The remains, designated X-7359, could not be identified, and were
interred at the United States Military Cemetery Neuville (present day
Ardennes American Cemetery).

Based upon the original recovery location of X-7359, a DPAA historian
determined that there was a likely association between the remains and
McCurley. In August 2018, the Department of Defense and American Battle
Monuments Commission disinterred X-7359 and accessioned the remains to the
DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify McCurley’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and
anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

McCurley will be buried April 25, 2020, in his hometown.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at
(800) 892-2490.

McCurley’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the
Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission
(ABMC) site in Hombourg, Belgium, along with the others missing from WWII.
Although interred as an Unknown, McCurley’s grave was meticulously cared for
by ABMC for 70 years. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate
he has been accounted for.

DPAA is grateful to ABMC and to the U.S. Army Regional
Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account
for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA
website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa
or call (703) 699-1420/1193.

McCurley’s personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000LlMDEA0.

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