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MEMORIAL DAY— MAY 30, 2016

WWII Army Private John Sersha’s remains returned home

Jodi Summit
Posted 5/26/16

EVELETH- The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, unaccounted for since World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family …

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MEMORIAL DAY— MAY 30, 2016

WWII Army Private John Sersha’s remains returned home

Posted

EVELETH- The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, unaccounted for since World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Pvt. John P. Sersha, 20, of Leonidas, Minn., will be buried May 28 in Eveleth.

Sersha was killed in action in 1944. On April 12, 1948, American Graves Registration Command personnel recovered two sets of remains from an isolated grave in the Kiekberg Woods. The remains had been found by local woodsmen who were working in the area. One of the sets of remains was identified and the other was designated as Unknown X-7429 and subsequently buried at the United States Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium.

Sersha’s nephew, Richard Lohry of Angora, began to look into his death back in 2005.

“By chance I saw a photo had been taken back in 1994 in the Netherlands of the Wall of the Missing, which has over 1,700 names on it,” he said. “By chance the photo was of the panel with my uncle’s name on it.”

“I always was aware of my uncle’s death in the war,” he said, “though I was only 11-months-old when he died in 1944.”

On Sept. 27, 1944, Sersha was assigned to Company F, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, as part of Operation Market Garden, and was entrenched on a hill overlooking the German-controlled Kiekberg Woods near Groesbeek, Netherlands. Sersha was one of three “Bazooka Men” who were sent out with a platoon from Company F to assault the German positions. None of the three men returned from the battle and several Company F soldiers stated Sersha had been killed.

Sersha still has two living siblings, Paul, 97, lives in Virginia, and sister Julia Trunzo, 93, lives in Mt. Iron.

Lohry said he had been collecting information on his uncle, working on a family history so his story would not be lost. He had copies of a letter from one of John’s lieutenants, along with materials collected by John’s brother, Paul. The family sponsored a memorial paver in the Veterans Memorial Park in Virginia, which was installed in 2013.

But this memorial was actually only the start of a new journey.

“The day after the paver was installed,” Lohry said, “we got a call from Germany, from Danny Keay, who had been doing archaeological work.” Keay had tracked down one of Sersha’s cousins, who was living in Duluth, who then contacted Lohry.

Keay had put together information from Sersha’s “Individual Deceased Personnel File” with information from a file of a set of unknown remains, catalogued as X-7429.

Unbeknownst to the Sersha family, the remains had been found in 1948 but were deemed “non-recoverable,” which meant the army couldn’t definitively identify them, and they would not return remains to a family unless there was a positive identification, Lohry said.

“The military did do a good job of trying to identify remains after the war,” Lohry said. “They had suspicions that these remains were John’s, and that information was in the X-file. But they never informed our family.”

With the information dug up by Keay, along with DNA samples submitted by Sersha relatives, and other research compiled by family members, the family asked to have the remains of X-7429 disinterred. In addition, there were independent dental analyses that concluded dental charts for X-7429 and Sersha were consistent. Under DPAA’s new disinterment process, historians were able to review the case and recommend further scientific analysis. On Dec. 16, 2015, the grave was exhumed and the remains were transferred to DPAA for analysis at Offutt Air Base in Nebraska.

To identify Sersha’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA, and autosomal DNA analysis, which matched a nephew and a brother; laboratory analysis, including dental and anthropological analysis, which matched Sersha’s records; along with the circumstantial evidence.

The process to gain permission for disinterment took about two years, Lohry said, requiring the approval of the Secretary of the Army, and was actually expedited under new procedures that had recently been put in place on a test basis. U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan helped the family during the process, Lohry said.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war.

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 or call 703-699-1420.

Pvt. John Paul Sersha was a resident of West Eveleth. He was born April 29, 1924, the son of Paul Frank and Angela (Procenz) Sersha and attended the Leonidas School. He later worked for the Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range Railroad Company. He was inducted into the US Army on November 17, 1943 at Ft. Snelling. He received infantry training at Camp Fannin near Tyler, Texas, a temporary training and POW camp during  WWII. He was then sent to Ft. George Mead in Maryland where he was assigned to the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, Company F, of the 82nd Airborne Division.

 He arrived at Camp Scraptoft near Leicester, England in July, 1944 where preparations were being made for the largest single airborne operation of the war, Market Garden, in the Netherlands. Company F gliders landed in the Overasselt area on September 23. Following an attack on the Kiekberg Forest on September 27, John did not return to his unit and was declared MIA. Following the war he was officially declared as killed in action on September 27, 1944. Remains discovered in 1948 were thought by the military to be those of Pvt. Sersha but could not be positively identified and were thus declared “non-recoverable” following a further investigation in 1950. He was identified as X-7429 and buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery, Neuville, Belgium. Following a request by the family, the Secretary of the Army approved a disinterment which took place on December 16, 2015. DNA analysis at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska confirmed his identity.

 John is survived by siblings: Paul (Julia Zadnikar) Sersha of Virginia and Julia Trunzo of Mountain Iron; numerous nieces, nephews, and extended family.

He was preceded in death by his parents; siblings: Angela Sersha, Mary Pecher, Molly Macht, and Stephen Sersha.

 A visitation will be held Friday, May 27, 2016 from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the Bauman-Cron Funeral Home in Virginia. Visitation will continue Saturday, May 28, 2016 from 10:00 a.m. until the 11:00 a.m. funeral service in Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Virginia. Reverend Father Brandon Moravitz and Pastor Richard Lohry will officiate. Interment with full military honors will follow in the Eveleth Cemetery.

 Memorials are preferred and may be directed to the Disabled American Veterans, Kolstad Chapter # 23.

 Family services provided by Bauman-Cron, A Bauman Family Funeral Home in Virginia. To share condolences online, please see: www.baumanfuneralhome.com .