Members of the 92nd Infantry Division carry guns across a field. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
U.S. Private First Class Lemuel Dent Jr. served as part of the Buffalo Soldiers and was recently identified by the DPAA nearly 80 years after his death.
"A lot of people talk about Normandy and Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge. I think the Italian campaign gets a little bit forgotten," Frank said.
PFC Dent was stationed along the Gothic Line northwest of Pisa, near Viareggio, Italy, along with other members of the 366th Infantry Regiment.
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"There was all this marshland that was between the coastline and the mountains that they were trying to get over," Frank said. "While they were trying to get past the landmines to get to the mountains, they were getting hit by artillery and mortar fire."
Members of the 92nd Infantry fire a mortar in this photograph from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
"We've identified three so far. PFC Dent would be the fourth," Frank said. "We have a very large-scale project, dealing with unknowns in the Florence American Cemetery. So, after the war, a lot of those remains were gathered up by the Army, who went out to search for missing people. Any remains they could not identify are still buried in Florence American Cemetery in Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Italy as unknowns. And we have a very large-scale project aimed at research to exhume those remains and identify them."
A rosette next to the name of U.S. Private First Class Lemuel Dent Jr. on a memorial for missing soldiers in the Florence American Cemetery in Italy. The rosette indicates that his remains were identified. Dent served as part of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II. (American Battle Monuments Commission)
"That's the whole reason that our office exists and does what we do," Frank said. "I was a soldier myself. I think, for the most part, soldiers don't really worry about themselves. I know when I was a soldier, my big worry was always, if something ever happens to me, how is my mom going to feel? What's my family going to do?"
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Most overseas American cemeteries list the names of soldiers who went missing in action on a memorial. For those who are eventually identified, a rosette is placed near their names. In July, a ribbon was placed by PFC Dent’s name at Florence American Cemetery.
"We're talking about PFC Dent because the agency hit a home run. Because we made an identification. We put the same work that we put into PFC Dent, even into our strikeouts," Frank said. "It's very, very emotional. It's a lot of pressure. So, when we do get an identification, of course, it feels good. But it also has to feel good enough to sustain you through the gut punch of whenever we get it wrong."
Bret Baier currently serves as FOX News Channel's (FNC) anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier (weeknights at 6-7PM/ET), chief political anchor of the network and co-anchor of the network’s election coverage. Baier is also host of FOX News Audio's "The Bret Baier Podcast" which includes Common Ground, The Campaign, The Candidates and The All-Star Panel. He joined FNC in 1998 as the first reporter in the Atlanta bureau and is now based in Washington, D.C.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-officials-identify-buffalo-soldier-killed-world-war-ii