A local man killed during the , Normandy , flights of World War II is coming house after 80 years.
In a press release posted Monday, the , Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency , ( DPAA ) announced that , U. S. Army , Sgt.  , John O. Herrick, 19, of , Emporia, Kansas, killed during World War II, was accounted for , Aug. 21, 2023.
According to reports articles detailing his company,  , John Herrick , was the brother of Mr. and Mrs.  , Carl Herrick , of , Clinton, Tennessee. He had two sons, Bill, who was injured in activity during WWII, and , Carl Jr., as well as a girl,  , Gene Parsons. At the time John enlisted, the family lived on a little farm in , Bushong. Herrick, who quickly attended , Emporia High School, was one of four young alumni of , Bushong High School , who went missing following the D- Time problems.
In , June 1944, Herrick was assigned to , Company B,  , 149th Engineer Combat Battalion , in the , German Theater. On , June 6, 1944, which later became known as D- Day, Herrick, and roughly 200 other service members, were aboard , Landing Craft Infantry , ( Large ) 92, enroute to Omaha Beach, in , Normandy,  , France.
” As LCI- 92 steamed toward the sea, it struck an underground me which caused the ship to burst into flames”, the DPAA said. The art was also struck by enemy artillery fire, igniting an explosion that sparked the ship’s fuel stores and quickly causing the troop compartment’s fatalities. Due to the urgency of the condition, it was difficult for others to search for individuals. Herrick’s bones were never accounted for after the battle”.
A few days afterwards, people of the , 500th Medical Collecting Company , examined the shipwreck of LCI- 92. The American Graves Registration Command ( AGRC ), the firm that searched for and recovered fallen National staff in the , German Theater, removed smaller amounts of remains from LCI- 92 before burying them in the , United States Military Cemetery St.  , Laurent- en- Mer in , Normandy.
In 1946, AGRC reexamined the bones, identifying them as four separate unidentified men, before interring them in , French American Cemetery, an , American Battle Monuments Commission  , page.
” In June and , August 2021, the , Department of Defense , and , ABMC , leaders exhumed the comingled remnants of the four Uncertainties and transferred them to the , DPAA Laboratory , for analysis”, the DPAA said. ” To discover Herrick’s remains, researchers from DPAA used archaeological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA ) and Y- chromosome DNA ( Y- STR ) analysis”.
Herrick’s title is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at , Normandy American Cemetery , in Colleville- dans- Mer,  , France. A flower will now be subsequent to his name to reveal that he has been found.
Sergeant. Herrick may remain buried on , Veterans Day,  , Nov. 11, 2024, in , Emporia.
___
( c ) 2024 The Emporia Gazette
Distributed by , Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
