Remains of soldier killed during WWII to be buried in Radcliff, Ky.

FORT KNOX, Ky. (WTVQ) — The remains of a World War II soldier from Indiana will be buried next week in the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery in Radcliff.

In January 1945, Army Pfc. Leonard E. Adams and his unit were in France when they were surrounded by German forces. As a result, Adams was killed in action at age 25. His body could not be recovered because of the fighting.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command recovered 37 unidentified sets of American remains around the Reipertswiller, France area but were unable to identify any as Adams. He was declared non-recoverable on May 4, 1951.

But decades later, historians with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency determined one set of remains, Unknown X-6372 Neuville, buried at Ardennes American Cemetery site in Neuville-en-Condroz in Belgium, could be Adams’.

In July 2021, those remains were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory in Nebraska for analysis.

And on July 20, 2022, those remains were finally identified as Adams’ — by using dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Epinal American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Dinoze, France, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

He’ll be buried in Kentucky on June 23.

For more information, head here: Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Adams, L.)